OLD QUEBEC 



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OLD QUEBEC 



THE FORTRESS OF NEW FRANCE 



BY 

GILBERT PARKER 

AND 

CLAUDE G. BRYAN 



WITH ILLUSTRATIONS 



\ ^.' 1,' 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

LONDON: MACMILLAN cS: CO., LTD. 
1903 

All rights reserved 



^0^^ 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two Copies RecoiveB 

OCT 13 1903 

Copyright tnliy 

CLASS ^ XXc No 

"1 i) t I / 
' rnpv H 



Copyright, 1903, 
By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. 



Set up, electrotyped, and published September, 1903. 



Norivood Press 

J. S. Cushrng & Co. — Berivkk & Smith Co. 

Norivood, Mass., U.S.A. 



f 



^ 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Note ......... xvii 



Prelude ,......,. xix 

CHAPTER I 

Early Voyages ....... I 

CHAPTER H 

The Era of Champlain . . . . . .19 

CHAPTER HI 

The Heroic Age of New France .... 44 

CHAPTER IV 

"Ad majorem Dei Gloriam " ..... 66 

CHAPTER V 

Royal Government . . . . . . .85 

CHAPTER VI 

The Noblesse and the People ..... 95 



VI 



OLD QUEBEC 



CHAPTER VII 
Frontenac and La Salle . . . . • . lio 

CHAPTER VIII 

Fire, Massacre, and Siege . . . . .134 

CHAPTER IX 

The Close of the Century , . . . .159 

CHAPTER X 
Border Warfare ....... 175 

CHAPTER XI 

The Beginning of the End . . . . .187 

CHAPTER XII 

Life under the Ancien Regime . . . . .218 

CHAPTER XIII 
During the Seven Years' War ..... 246 

CHAPTER XIV 
"Here died Wolfe Victorious" .... 268 

CHAPTER XV 

Murray and De Levis ...... 299 



CONTENTS vii 

CHAPTER XVI 



PAGE 



The First Years of British Rule . . . .325 

CHAPTER XVn 
The Fifth Siege ...... » 342 

CHAPTER XVHI 
Social and Political Progress ..... 364 

CHAPTER XIX 

The Story of the Great Trading Companies . . 394 

CHAPTER XX 

The New Century ....... 422 

CHAPTER XXI 
The Modern Period .....= 443 

APPENDICES 473 

INDEX 479 



LIST OF PLATES 



Major-General James Wolfe . 



Frontispiece 











F 


ACE PAGE 


Fran^ois-Xavier de Laval . . . . . .16 


Cardinal de Richelieu . 










48 


The Earl of Chatham 










187 


General the Marquis Montcalm 










271 


General Sir Jeffrey Amherst . 










282 


Admiral Earl St. Vincent 










294- 


General Gage . 










301 


The Hon. Robert Monckton 










307 ' 


^ General Sir A. P. Irving 










3'7'- 


General Townshend . 










327- 


Sir James Henry Craig 










342 


Sir John Cope Sherbrooke 










355 ^ 


The Fourth Duke of Richmond 










368 


Admiral Viscount Nelson 










374 


Lord Dalhousie . 










376 u 


General Lord Aylmer . 










395- 


The Earl of Durham . 










407 


Sir John Colborne 










417 . 



1 Inscription on plate for 2nd Governor of Canada 1766, read Lieutenant- 
Governor of Canada 1766. 



OLD QUEBEC 





FACE PAGE 


Lord Sydenham . . . . . 


• 424 


Sir Charles Bagot .... 


• 434 


General Earl Cathcart 


• 443 


The Earl of Elgin .... 


. 452 


Lord Lisgar ..... 


. 458 


The Marquis of DufFerin and Ava . 


. 466 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Etude 



Jacques Cartier .... 

Manoir de Jacques Cartier a Limoulon 

Arrival of Jacques Cartier at Quebec, i 5 

Cap Rouge 

Champlain . . 

Montmorency Falls 

Bonne Ste. Anne (Old Church) 

Marie de 1' Incarnation 

Ursuline Nuns of Quebec (Salle d 

Jesuits' College and Church . 

Chateau Saint Louis, 1694 . 

The Ursulines' Convent 

Monument to the First Canadian M 

Brebeuf .... 

Lalement .... 

Colbert .... 

Qld Bishop's Palace . 

New Palace Gate 

Tntendant's Palace 

Frontenac 

Old St. Louis Gate 

Robert Cavelier de la Salle , 

Sir William Phipps 



ission 



noviciat J 



PAGE 

7 
1 1 

13 

17 
21 

25 
31 
5' 

55 
56 

57 
61 

71 

74 

75 

87 

103 

105 

107 

113 
117 
123 

H7 



Xll 



OLD QUEBEC 



Plan of Fort St. Louis, 1683 

The Citadel To-day (from DufFerin Terrace) 

Notre Dame de la Victoire . 

The Citadel in Winter 

Lieut. -General Sir William Pepperell, Bart. 

Bienville .... 

De Bougainville . 

Ruins of Chateau Bigot 

Le Chien d'Or . 

Plan of the City of Quebec, 1759 

Major-General Sir Isaac Barre 

Sir Hugh Palliser, Bart. 

The City of Quebec in 1759 

Baron Grant 

Baroness de Longueil . 

Upper Town Market To-day 

New St. John's Gate . 

Petit Champlain Street To-day 

Old Prescott Gate 

A Carriole 

Village of Beauport 

The Basilica 

Jesuits' Barracks 

Caleches .... 

Quebec (from Levi) . 

De Levis .... 

Sir George Bridges Rodney, Bart. (Governor of New 

land, 1759) 
Entrance to the Citadel To-day 
Hope Gate 
Admiral Sir Charles Saunders 



found- 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Xlll 











PAGE 


The Manor-House at Beauport, Montcalm's Headquarters . 277 


General Hospital ...... 


. 284 


Captain James Cook 








290 


New Kent Gate 








• 301 


Church of the Recollets and La Grande 


Place 






• 309 


Old French House, St. John Street 








• 315 


Manor House, Sillery . 








319 


Montreal in 1760 








329 


General Richard Montgomery 








345 


Cape Diamond .... 








357 


Benjamin Franklin 








365 


Charles Carroll of Carrollton 








367 


Samuel Chase .... 








369 


Breakneck Steps To-day 








371 


Old Parliament House, Quebec 








377 


H.R.H. the Duke of Kent, K.B. 








379 


St. Lawrence River from the Citadel 








381 


Percee Rock .... 








387 


Hon. William Osgoode 








389 


New St. Louis Gate . 








390 


Old Market Square, Upper Town . 








39' 


Frontenac Terrace To-day . 








392 


Mr. Samuel Hearne .... 








397 


Prince of Wales's Fort, Hudson's Bay, i 


111 






401 


Prince Rupert .... 








403 


Sir Alexander Mackenzie . _ . 








415 


Simon M'Tavish .... 








419 


Earl of Selkirk ..... 








420 


Ferry-Boat on the St. Lawrence 








423 


Sir Gordon Drummond 






427 


Major-General Sir Isaac Brock, K.B. 








430 



XIV 



OLD QUEBEC 



General de Salaberry ...... 


• 435 


A Beggar of Cote Beaupre ..... 


43 7 


St. Louis Street, Place d'Armes, and New Court House 


440 


City Hall, Quebec 


444 


Lieut. -Colonel |ohn Bv, R.E'. .... 


445 


Sir Peregrine Maitland ..... 


448 


Trappists at Mistassini ..... 


449 


The Hon. Louis Joseph Papineau ... 


451 


English Cathedral ...... 


455 


The Marquis of Lome (Duke of Argyll) 


461 


Sir George Cartier ....... 


465 


Sir John A. Macdonald ...... 


467 


Sir Wilfrid Laurier ....... 


469 



MAPS 

1. Canada and the North American Colonies, 1 680-1 782 

Face piige i i o -^ 
The Environs of Quebec, 1759. 
Louisbourg, to show the Sieges of 1744 and 1758. 

2. Plan of Quebec, 1759. From a Map published in 

London in 1760 Page 207 

3. Plan of the River St. Lawrence . . Face page 268 ^ 

4. Map of Upper and Lower Canada, illustrating events 

until the Campaign of 1 814 . , Face page 378 ^ 

5. The Territory of the Hudson's Bay Companv, 1670- 

1870 ..... Face page 399 



NOTE 

The student of the history of the ancient capital 
of Canada is embarrassed, not by the dearth but by 
the abundance of material at his disposal. The 
present volume, therefore, makes no claim to origi- 
nality. It is but an assimilation of this generous 
data, and a simple comment upon the changing 
scenes which were recorded by such ancient au- 
thorities as the Jesuit priests and pioneers in their 
Relations^ and by the monumental works of Francis 
Parkman, whose researches occupied more than 
forty years, and whose picturesque pen has done 
for Canada what Prescott's did for Mexico. Ad- 
miring tribute and gratitude must also be expressed 
for the years of careful study and the unfaltering 
energy by which the late Mr. Kingsford produced 
his valuable History of Canada. Nor can any one, 
writing of Quebec, proceed successfully without 
constant reference to the historical gleanings of 
Sir James Le Moine, who has spent a lifetime in 
the romantic atmosphere of old-time manuscripts, 



xviii OLD QUEBEC 

and who, with Monsieur I'Abbe Casgrain, repre- 
sents, in its most attractive form, that composite 
citizenship which has the wit and grace of the old 
regime^ with the useful ardour of the new. 

THE AUTHORS. 



PRELUDE 

About the walled city of Quebec cling more vivid 
and enduring memories than belong to any other 
city of the modern world. Her foundation marked 
a renaissance of religious zeal in France, and to the 
people from whom came the pioneers who suffered 
or were slain for her, she had the glamour of new- 
born empire, of a conquest renewing the glories of 
the days of Charlemagne. Visions of a hemisphere 
controlled from Versailles haunted the days of 
Francis the First, of the Grand Monarch, of Col- 
bert and of Richelieu, and in the sky of national 
hope and over all was the Cross whose passion led 
the Church into the wilderness. The first emblem 
of sovereignty in the vast domain which Jacques 
Cartier claimed for Francis his royal master, was 
a cross whereon was inscribed — 

Franciscus Primus, Dei Grati?i Fraticorum Rex, Regfiat. 

In spite of cruel neglect due to internal troubles 
and that European strife in which the mother-land 
was engaged for so many generations, the eyes of 



XX OLD QUEBEC 

Frenchmen turned to their over-sea dominions with 
imaginative hope, with conviction that the great 
continent of promise would renew in France the 
glories that were Greece and the grandeur that was 
Rome. How hard the patriotic colonists strove to 
retain those territories which Champlain, La Salle, 
Maisonneuve, Joliet, and so many others won 
through nameless toil and martyrdom, and how at 
last the broad lands passed to another race and 
another flag, not by fault or folly or lack of courage 
of the people, but by the criminal corruption of 
the ruling few, is the narrative which runs through 
these pages. 

For at least the first hundred years of its exist- 
ence, Quebec was New France ; and the story of 
Quebec in that period is the story of all Canada. 
The fortress was the heart and soul of French 
enterprise in the New World. From the Castle 
of St. Louis, on the summit of Cape Diamond, 
went forth mandates, heard and obeyed in distant 
Louisiana. The monastic city on the St. Lawrence 
was the centre of the web of missions, which slowly 
spread from the dark Saguenay to Lake Superior. 
The fearful tragedies of Indian warfare had their 
birth in the early policy of Quebec. The fearless 
voyageurs, whose canoes glided into unknown 
waters, ever westward — towards Cathay, as they 



PRELUDE xxi 

believed — made Quebec their base for exploration. 
And as time went on, the rock-built stronghold 
of the north became the nerve-centre of that half- 
century of conflict which left the flag of Britain 
waving in victory on the Plains of Abraham. 

When Montcalm in his last hours consigned to 
the care of the British conquerors the colonists he 
had loved and for whom he had fought, he pro- 
claimed a momentous epoch in the world's history 

— the loss of an Empire to a great nation of 
Europe and the gain of an Empire to another. 
Within a generation the Saxon Conquistador was 
to suflfer the same humiliation, and to yield up 
that colonial territory from which Quebec had been 
assailed; but the fortress city was always to both 
nations the keystone of the arch of power on the 
American continent. When she was lost to France, 
Louisiana, that vast territory along the Mississippi 

— a kingdom in itself — still remained, but no high 
memory cherished it, no national hope hung over 
it, and a hundred years ago Napoleon Bonaparte 
sold it to the new Western power — the United 
States. As a nation the labours of France were 
finished in America on the day that De Ramezay 
yielded up the keys of the city, and Wolfe's war- 
worn legions marched through St. Louis Gate from 
the Plains of Abraham. 



xxii OLD QUEBEC 

Yet scores of thousands of the people of France 
remained in the city and the province to be ruled 
henceforth by the intrepid race, with which it had 
competed in a death-struggle for dominion through 
so many adventurous and uncertain years. Victory, 
like a wayward imp of Fate, had settled first upon 
one and then upon the other, and once before 1759 
England had held the keys of the great fortress 
only to yield them up again in a weak bargain ; but 
the die was thrown for the last time when Amherst 
securely quartered himself at Montreal, and Murray 
at the Chateau St. Louis, where Frontenac and Vau- 
dreuil had had their day of virile governance. Never 
again was the banner of the golden lilies to wave in 
sovereignty over the St. Lawrence, though the people 
who had fought and toiled under its protection were 
to hold to their birthright and sustain their language 
through the passing generations, faithful to tradition 
and origin, but no less faithful to the Canadian soil 
which their fame, their labour, and their history had 
made sacred to them. Frenchmen of a vanished 
day they were to cherish their past with an appre- 
hensive devotion, and yet to keep the pact they 
made with the conqueror in 1759, and later in 1774 
when the Quebec Act secured to them their reli- 
gious libertv, their civic code, and their political 
status. This pact, further developed in the first 



PRELUDE xxiii 

Union of the English and French provinces in 
1840, and afterwards in the Confederation of 1867, 
has never suffered injury or real suspicion, but was 
first made certain by loyalty to the British flag, in 
the War of the American Revolution, and piously 
sealed by victorious duty and valour in the war of 
18 12. The record of fidelity has been enriched 
since that day in the north-west rebellion fomented 
by a French half-breed in 1885, and in the late war 
in South Africa, where French Canadians fought 
side by side with English comrades for the preser- 
vation of the Empire. 

These later acts of imperial duty are not per- 
formed by Anglicised Frenchmen, for the pioneer 
race of Quebec are still a people apart in the great 
Dominion so far as their civic and social, their 
literary and domestic life are concerned. They 
share faithfully in the national development, and 
honourably serve the welfare of the whole Do- 
minion — sometimes with a too careful and unsym- 
pathetic reserve — but within their own beloved 
province they retain as zealously and more jealously 
than the most devoted Highland men their lan- 
guage and their customs, and faithfully conserve the 
civil laws which mark them off as clearly from the 
English provinces as Jersey and Guernsey are dis- 
tinguished from the United Kingdom. They have 



xxiv OLD QUEBEC 

changed little with the passing years, and their city 
has changed less. In many respects the Quebec 
of to-day is the Quebec of yesterday. Time and 
science have altered its detail, but viewed from afar 
it seems to have altered as little as Heidelberg and 
Coblenz. Lower Town huddles in artistic chaos 
at the foot of the sheltering cliff, and, as aforetime, 
the overhanging fort protrudes its protecting muz- 
zles. Spires and antique minarets which looked 
down upon a French settlement struggling with foes 
in feathers and war-paint, still gleam from the tow- 
ering rock on which their stable foundations are 
laid ; and after five sieges and the passing of two 
and a half centuries the mother city of the continent 
remains a faithful survivor of an heroic age, on 
historic ground sacred to the valour of two great 
races. 



OLD QUEBEC 



CHAPTER I 



EARLY VOYAGES 



Living in the twentieth century, to which the utter- 
most parts of the earth are revealed, and with only 
the undiscovered poles left to lure us on, we cannot 
fully appreciate the geographical ignorance of the 
Middle Ages. The travels of Marco Polo had 
only lately revealed the wonders of the golden East, 
and in the West the Pillars of Hercules marked 
earth's furthest bound. Beyond lay the 77iare tene- 
brosum, the Mysterious Sea, girding the level world. 
England was not then one of the first nations of the 
earth. She was not yet a maritime power, she had 
not begun the work of colonisation and empire : 
the fulcrum of Europe lay further south. But as 
our Tudor sovereigns were making secure dominion 
in " these isles," the Byzantine Empire was moving 
slowly to its end, and favouring circumstances were 
already making Italy the centre of the world's 
commerce and culture. There the feudal system, 



1 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

never deeply rooted, was declining slowly, and Italian 
energy and enterprise now having larger opportunity, 
seized the commerce of the East as it received vast 
impulse from the Crusades, and this trade became 
the source of Empire. 

Venice, Genoa, and Pisa were now great em- 
poriums of Oriental wares, were waxing rich on a 
transport trade which had no option but to use their 
ports and their vessels. Inland Florence had no part 
in maritime enterprise, but was the manufacturing, 
literarv, and art centre of mediaeval Europe. Her silk 
looms made her famous throughout the world, her 
banks were the purse of Europe, and among her 
famous sons were Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Mac- 
chiavelli, Michael Angel o, Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, 
Amerigo Vespucci. For the development of their 
commerce, the cities of the North had grouped them- 
selves into the great Hanseatic League, with branches 
in Bruges, London, Bergen, and Novgorod. Com- 
mercialism had everywhere become the keynote of 
the closing Middle Ages, inspiring that maritime 
enterprise which was soon to outline a new map of 
the world. 

The main route between the West and East had 
hitherto been by way of the Red Sea and the 
Euphrates, and it was controlled by the Italian 
cities. Italy had, therefore, no interest in finding 
a water route to the East which would rob her of 



I EARLY VOYAGES 3 

this profitable overland traffic. But the experience 
of her sailors made them the most skilful of the 
world's navigators and the readiest instruments of 
other nations in expeditions of discovery. Thus 
Columbus of Genoa, Cabot of Venice, and Verraz- 
zano of Florence are found accepting commissions 
from foreign sovereigns. 

" The discoveries of Copernicus and Columbus," 
says Froude, " created, not in any metaphor, but in 
plain language, a new heaven and a new earth." The 
new theory of Copernicus was, indeed, one of the 
choicest flowers of the Renaissance, and though 
timidly enunciated, it revolutionised the world's 
geography. Further, the discovery of the polarity 
of the magnet, and the invention of the astrolabe, 
gave to the mariners of the fifteenth century a 
sense of security lacking to their fathers, while the 
kindling flame of the New Learning led them upon 
the most daring quests. The Portuguese were the 
first to enter on the brilliant path of sea-going 
exploration which distinguishes this century above 
all others. By i486 they had already found 
Table Mountain rising out of the Southern sea, and 
hoping always for a passage to the East, had named 
it the Cape of Good Hope. Spain soon followed 
her rival into these unknown regions, a policy due 
mainly to the enthusiasm of Isabella of Castile, who, 
in spite of the conservative apathy of the Council 



4 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

of Salamanca, was eager to become the patroness of 
Christopher Columbus. 

Although the Northmen of the tenth century 
had been blown almost fortuitously upon the shores 
of Nova Scotia, by way of Iceland, Greenland, and 
Labrador, the discovery of North America must 
always be set to the credit of Christopher Columbus. 
From the age of fourteen he had been upon the 
sea, and his keen mind was stored with all the 
nautical science afforded by the awakened spirit of 
the time. To this practical equipment he added 
a romantic temperament and a habit of reflection 
which carried him to greater certainty in his convic- 
tions than even that attained by his correspondent, 
the learned Toscanelli. Assuming that the world 
was round — no commonplace of the time — he de- 
termined forthwith to reach India by sailing west- 
ward. His bones lie buried in the Western 
hemisphere, which his intrepidity revealed to an 
astonished world. 

As soon as Columbus, in the name of Ferdinand 
and Isabella; had opened the gates of the New 
World, ships from England and France began to 
hasten westward across the Atlantic. The Cabots, 
holding to the North, discovered Newfoundland in 
1497 ; Denis of Honfleur explored the Gulf of St. 
Lawrence in 1506 ; and a few years later Verrazzano 
coasted along the North Atlantic seaboard in four 



I EARLY VOYAGES 5 

ships fitted out for him by the youthful Francis of 
Angouleme. This voyage was practically the be- 
ginning of French enterprise in the New World. 

On Verrazzano's return to Dieppe, he sent the 
King a written account of his travels, and France 
was presently burning with excitement over the 
abundant riches of the New World. Spain, mean- 
while, had been reaping the wealth of the West 
Indies, and Hernando Cortes was laying a stern 
hand upon the treasures of Mexico. And now dis- 
asters at home were, for a time, to rob the fickle 
Francis of all ambition for transatlantic glory. In 
the contest for the crown of the Holy Roman Em- 
pire he had been worsted by Charles V., and shortly 
afterwards the strength of France was hopelessly 
shattered at Pavia, the King being carried back a 
prisoner to Madrid. But when, at last, the peace 
of Cambrai had somewhat restored tranquillity to 
France, Philippe de Brion-Chabot, a courtier at the 
Louvre, decided to follow up Verrazzano's almost 
forgotten exploit of ten years before, and Jacques 
Cartier became the instrument of this tardy resolution. 

Jacques Cartier was born at St. Malo, the white 
buttress of Brittany. Daring Breton fishing-boats 
had often sailed as far as the cod-banks of Newfound- 
land, and it is not impossible that Cartier himself 
had already crossed the Atlantic before he was com- 
missioned by Chabot. From a child he had lived 



6 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

upon the sea. He was forty years old when he re- 
ceived his commission, and on the 20th of April, 
1634, he set sail from his native town. Holding a 
northern course he came at length to Newfoundland, 
and having passed through the Straits of Belle Isle 
and across the Gulf, he erected a white cross at 
Gaspe, and sailed on westward till Anticosti came in 
sight. It was then August, and as constant westerly 
winds delayed his further course, he decided to re- 
turn to France. Unfortunately, however, he did 
not leave until he had lured on board his ships two 
young Indians, whom he carried back as trophies, 
sowing thereby the seed of future trouble. 

His countrymen were deeply stirred by his report. 
Beyond a doubt the great Gulf up which he had 
sailed was the water route to Cathay, and France 
could hardly await the arrival of spring before 
sending another expedition. By the middle of 
May, 1635, Cartier was ready to embark on a sec- 
ond voyage, and on this occasion no less than three 
ships were equipped, numbering among their officers 
men of birth and quality — gentlemen in search of 
adventure, others eager to mend broken fortunes, 
and all bent on claiming new lands for France and 
for the faith. Assembling in the old cathedral they 
confessed their sins and heard the Mass ; and on the 
19th of May the dwellers of St. Malo saw the sails 
of the Hermine^ La Petite Hermine^ and Emerillon melt 



I EARLY VOYAGES 7 

into the misty blue of the horizon. Almost immedi- 
ately a fierce storm scattered the ships, and they only 
came together again six weeks later in the Straits of 




JACi2UES CARTIER 



Belle Isle. This time Cartier coasted along the north 
shore of the Gulf; and to a bay opposite Anticosti 
he gave the name of St. Lawrence, upon whose 
festival day it was discovered. Then for the first 



8 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

time a white man entered " the great river of 
Canada." 

With the kidnapped Indians for pilots, the three 
caravels passed by the canon of the Saguenay, 
mysterious in its sombre silence. Presently the 
rocky cliff of Cap Tourmente towered above them, 
and at length they glided into safe anchorage off 
the Isle of Bacchus.^ 

To the savage Indians the mighty vessels of 
France were marvels from another world, and the 
river was soon swarming with their birch-bark canoes. 
The story of the two braves who had been carried 
away to France filled them with grave wonder, and 
the glittering costumes of Cartier and his officers 
seemed like the garments of gods. The great 
chief, Donnacona, waiving regal conventions, clam- 
bered upon the deck of the Hermine, where Cartier 
regaled him with cakes and wine, and with a few 
beads purchased the amity of his naked followers. 
Then Cartier set out in a small boat to explore the 
river. 

Above the Island of Bacchus he found himself in 
a beautiful harbour, on the farther side of which the 
great river of Canada boomed through a narrow 
gorge. On the left of the basin the broader chan- 
nel of the river passed out between the Isle of 
Bacchus and a range of wooded heights ; while on 

^ Now the Island of Orleans, 



I EARLY VOYAGES 9 

his right, a tower of rock rose majestically from the 
foam-flecked water. Among the oak and walnut 
trees that crowned the summit of this natural battle- 
ment clustered the bark cabins of Stadacone, whence, 
as wide as eye could range, the Lord of Canada held 
his savage sway. 

This Algonquin eyrie seemed only accessible by a 
long detour through the upland, in which the rocky 
heights gradually descended to the little river of St. 
Croix. Thither Cartier and his companions made 
their way, and then, for the first time, white men 
gazed upon the green landscape spread beneath 
that high promontory. On the north and east the 
blue rim of the world's oldest mountains, then as 
now, seemed to shut off a mysterious barren land ; 
on the south and west the eye met a fairer prospect, 
for beyond a sea of verdure the sun's rays glistened 
upon the distant hills of unknown, unnamed Ver- 
mont. Between these half-points of the compass the 
broad St. Lawrence rolled outward to the sea, and 
the discovering eye followed its bending course be- 
yond the Isle of Bacchus and past the beetling 
shoulder of Cap Tourmente. In the summer of 
1535 Cartier stood entranced on this magnificent 
precipice ; and to-day the visitor to Quebec gazes 
from the King's Bastion upon the same panorama, 
hardly altered by the flight of nearly four centuries. 

But Quebec had yet for many years to await its 



lo OLD QUEBEC chap. 

founder. Carder's mission was one of discovery, 
not colonisation ; and he resolved to push further up 
the river to Hochelaga, an important village of which 
the Indians had told him. But Donnacona soon 
repented of the information he had given, and left 
nothing undone to turn Cartier from his purpose. 
As a last resource the magicians of Stadacone devised 
a plan to frighten the obstinate Frenchman, but the 
crude masquerade arranged for that purpose pro- 
voked nothing but amusement. A large canoe came 
floating slowly down the river, and when it drew near 
the ships the Frenchmen beheld three black devils, 
garbed in dogskins, and wearing monstrous horns 
upon their heads. Chanting the hideous monotones 
of the medicine men, they glided past the fleet, made 
for the shore, and disappeared in the thicket. Pres- 
ently, Cartier's two interpreters issued from the wood 
and declared that the god Coudouagny had sent his 
three chief priests to warn the French against ascend- 
ing the river, predicting dire calamities if they should 
persist. Cartier's reply to the Indian deity was brief 
and irreverent, and he forthwith made ready to depart. 
The Hermine and Emerillon were towed to safer 
moorings in the quiet St. Croix, and with the pinnace 
and a small company of men Cartier set out for 
Hochelaga. The journey was long and toilsome, 
but by the beginning of October they came to a 
beautiful island, the site of Montreal. A thousand 



EARLY VOYAGES 



II 



Indians thronged the shore to welcome the mysteri- 
ous visitors, presenting gifts of fish and fruit and 
corn. Then, by a well-worn trail, the savages led 
the way through the forest to the foot of the moun- 
tain, and into the triple palisades of Hochelaga. 

The early frosts of autumn had already touched 
the trees, and Cartier, having accomplished his ex- 
ploration, hastened back to Stadacone, where he set 




MANOIR DE JACQUES CARTIER A LIMOULON 

about making preparations for spending the winter. 
A fort was hastily built at the mouth of the St. 
Croix. But the exiles were unready for the violent 
season that soon closed in upon them, almost bury- 
ing their fort in drifting snow and casing the ships 
in an armour of glistening ice. Pent up by the 
biting frost, and eking out a wretched existence on 
salted food, their condition grew deplorable. A 
terrible scurvy assailed the camp, and out of a 
company of one hundred and ten, twenty-five died, 
while only three or four of the rest escaped its 



12 OLD QUEBEC 



CHAP. 



ravages. The flint-like ground defied their feeble 
spades, and the dead bodies were hidden away in 
banks of snow. To make matters still worse, the 
Indians grew first indifferent, and then openly 
hostile. Cartier was sorely beset to conceal from 
them the weakness of his garrison. At last, how- 
ever, a friendly Indian told him of a decoction by 
which the scurvy might be cured. The leaves of a 
certain evergreen were put to brew, and this medicine 
proved the salvation of the decimated company. 

By and by came the spring ; and when at last sun 
and rain had loosed the fetters of ice, Cartier de- 
termined to return to France. Before the ships 
weighed anchor, however, Donnacona and four of 
his companions were enticed on board, and with 
these sorry trophies the French captain turned his 
prows homeward. At midsummer-time the storm- 
battered ships glided once more into the rock-bound 
harbour of St. Malo. 

Five years elapsed before France sent another 
expedition into the New World. The perennial 
conflict with Charles V. kept the French king's mind 
fixed on his home dominions, and Chabot, Cartier's 
former patron, had fallen upon evil times. At last, 
however, a new adventurer appeared in the person of 
the Sieur de Roberval, a nobleman of Picardy. The 
elaborate but almost incomprehensible text of the 
royal patent described the new envoy as Lord of 



EARLY VOYAGES 



13 



Norembega, Viceroy and Lieuteiiant-General in 
Canada, Hochelaga, Saguenay, Newfoundland, Belle 
Isle, Carpunt, Labrador, the Great Bay, and Baccalaos. 
Under him Cartier was persuaded to take the post 
of Captain-General. The objects of the enterprise 
were discovery, colonisation, and the conversion of 




ARRIVAL OF JACQUES CARTIER AT QUEBEC, I 5 35 



the Indians; albeit the instruments for this pious 
purpose were more than doubtful, their five ships 
being freighted for the most part with thieves and 
malefactors recruited from the prisons of France. 

An unexpected delay occurring at St. Malo, it 
was determined that Cartier should sail at once, and 
that Roberval should follow as soon as possible with 
additional ships and supplies. Accordingly, on the 



14 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

23rd of May, 1 541, Cartier again spread his sails for 
the West, and after a stormy passage arrived in the 
St. Lawrence. The uncertain attitude of the Indians, 
however, prompted him to establish his colony 
further westward than Stadacone, and he continued 
his course up the river and dropped anchor at Cap 
Rouge. 

Summer and autumn passed away and brought no 
sign of Roberval. A gloomy winter further damped 
the spirits of the colonists at Charlesburg-Royal ; 
and when the ice had gone out of the river, Cartier 
gathered his company back into the ships and set 
sail again for France. At Newfoundland he en- 
countered the belated Roberval. High words were 
exchanged, and, as a result, the fiery Viceroy sailed 
alone to New France ; and Cartier, bidding Canada 
a last farewell, held on his way to St. Malo. 

Francis Parkman transcribes from the manuscript 
of Thevet the following incident which marked 
Roberval's voyage : — " The Viceroy's company was 
of a mixed complexion. There were nobles, officers, 
soldiers, sailors, adventurers, with women, too, and 
children. Of the women, some were of birth and 
station, and among them a damsel called Marguerite, 
a niece of Roberval himself. In the ship was a 
young gentleman who had embarked for love of her. 
His love was too well requited, and the stern Viceroy, 
scandalised and enraged at a passion which scorned 



I EARLY VOYAGES 15 

concealment and set shame at defiance, cast anchor 
by the haunted island (the Isle of Demons), landed 
his indiscreet relative, gave her four arquebuses for 
defence, and with an old woman nurse who had 
pandered to the lovers, left her to her fate. Her 
gallant threw himself into the surf, and by desperate 
effort gained the shore, with two more guns and a 
supply of ammunition. The ship weighed anchor, 
receded, vanished ; they were left alone. Yet not 
so, for the demon-lords of the island beset them day 
and night, raging round their hut with a confused 
and hungry clamouring, striving to force the frail 
barrier. The lovers had repented of their sin, 
though not abandoned it, and Heaven was on their 
side. The saints vouchsafed their aid, and the 
offended Virgin, relenting, held before them her 
protecting shield. In the form of beasts and other 
shapes abominably and unutterably hideous, the 
brood of hell, howling in baffled fury, tore at the 
branches of the sylvan dwelling ; but a celestial hand 
was ever interposed, and there was a viewless barrier 
which they might not pass. Marguerite became 
pregnant. Here was a double prize — two souls in 
one, mother and child. The fiends grew frantic, but 
all in vain. She stood undaunted amid these horrors, 
but her lover, dismayed and heart-br jken, sickened 
and died. Her child soon followed ; then the old 
woman nurse found her unhallowed rest in that 



i6 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

accursed soil, and Marguerite was left alone. Neither 
reason nor courage failed her ; and when assailed by 
the demons, she shot at them with her gun. They 
answered with hellish merriment, and thenceforth 
she placed her trust in Heaven alone. There were 
foes around her of the upper, no less than of the 
nether, world. Of these the bears were the most 
redoubtable, yet as they were vulnerable to mortal 
weapons, she killed three of them — all, says the 
story, 'as white as an egg.' 

"It was two years and five months from her 
landing on the island, when, far out at sea, the crew 
of a small fishing-craft saw a column of smoke 
curling upward from the haunted shore. Was it a 
device of the fiends to lure them to their ruin ? 
They thought so, and kept aloof. But misgiving 
seized them. They warily drew near, and descried 
a female figure in wild attire waving signals from 
the strand. Thus, at length, was Marguerite rescued, 
and restored to her native France, where, a few years 
later, the cosmographer Thevet met her at Natron, 
in Perigord, and heard the tale of wonder from her 
own lips." ^ 

Meanwhile, Roberval sailed on up the St. 

Lawrence, and established himself at Cap Rouge, in 

the deserted forts of Charlesburg-Royal built by 

Cartier. But the inexperience and imprudence of 

^ Parkman's Pioneers of France, p. 203. 



EARLY VOYAGES 



17 



the haughty Viceroy soon put his estabhshment 
in sore straits. Ignorance of physical conditions 
and disregard of natural laws of health had always 
been the chief cause of suffering among these trans- 
atlantic exiles, and Roberval now added a lament- 
able want of perception and solicitude. Unlike 
Cartier, the inexorable Viceroy did not recognise his 




CAP ROUGE 



colonists as companions in privation, but ruled them 
with a rod of iron. The pillory, the whipping-post, 
and the scaffold were distressing features in his 
system. Then came winter, famine, and the scurvy. 
Fifty of the settlers died, and by spring even the 
headstrong Roberval was ready to forsake his enter- 
prise. His departure ends the earliest period of 
French adventure in America. 



i8 OLD QUEBEC chap, i 

Thenceforth, for more than half a century, France 
writhed in civil war, and spared no vessel to explore 
the great river of Canada. For all these years New 
France was left to its aboriginal inhabitants and to 
fate. 



CHAPTER II 



THE ERA OF CHAMPLAIN 



The name of Champlain must ever stand before all 
others in the history of Quebec. He was the founder 
of the city, and for more than a quarter of a century 
he was its very life. If repeated disappointment and 
misfortune could have brought this great empire- 
builder to despair ; if obstacles apparently impossible 
to overcome could have turned the hero from his 
purpose, Quebec would not be to-day the oldest city 
in the western hemisphere. As it was, his character 
gave the keynote not only to the great fortress-capi- 
tal, but to the whole history of New France. He 
was an embodiment at once of the religious zeal 
and of the mediaeval spirit of romance which car- 
ried the Bourbon lilies into the trackless wilder- 
ness of North America, at a time when English 
colonisation contented itself with a narrow strip on 
the Atlantic seaboard. 

Samuel de Champlain was born in 1567 at the 
small seaport of Brouage, on the Bay of Biscay. 

19 



20 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

His father was a captain in the French navy, in 
which profession the son also received early training. 
In the conflict between the King and the rebellious 
Due de Mercoeur and the League, Champlain was 
found on the Royalist side ; and Henry the Fourth 
rewarded his faithful subject with a pension and a 
place at court. But the war in Brittany was not 
long over before Champlain became restless. The 
spirit of adventure beat strong in his veins, and 
at length he determined upon a project which, 
while it should serve the purpose of the King, 
was also well spiced with peril. Proceeding to 
Cadiz, where his uncle was Pilot-General of the 
Spanish marine, Champlain obtained command of 
one of the ships in Don Francisco Colombo's fleet, 
bound for the West Indies. On this voyage he was 
absent from France more than two years, visiting 
not only the West Indies, but also Mexico and 
Central America. 

On his return, these travels gave him an unusual 
importance at the French court; and when, in 1603, 
the aged De Chastes, Governor of Dieppe, decided 
to seal his pious life with an enterprise for the King 
and for the Church, the adventurous Champlain 
became the instrument of his purpose. 

De Chastes' two small vessels set sail from Hon- 
fleur, one commanded by Pontgrave, the other by 
Champlain. The voyage was long but uneventful. 



II 



THE ERA OF CHAMPLAIN 21 



Pontgrave's former trading-post at Tadousac had 
been abandoned, and they held their lonely way up 
the St. Lawrence, past the mantling rock of Stada- 
cone, on to the wooded heights of Hochelaga. 
Cartier's Indian village of sixty-eight years before 
had disappeared — undoubtedly swept from existence 
by the relentless Iroquois. At this point, however. 




CHAMPLAIN 



the foaming St. Louis rapids barred their way, and 
the caravels were turned homeward. With wind 
and current down the river, and out through the 
Gulf, in due season they came safely to Havre de 
Grace. 

In their absence the Sieur de Chastes had died ; 
but De Monts, another courtier at the Louvre, 
succeeded to the patent for colonising in the New 
World. Exploration was not to rest, and Champlain 
and the Baron de Poutrincourt accompanied the new 



22 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

Deputy in his Acadian expedition of 1604. Once 
more the Atlantic was crossed. Passing Cap la 
Heve the explorers sought a suitable site for their 
colony along this coast, and when they reached the 
beautiful basin of Annapolis, hemmed in by a circle 
of wooded hills, the artistic Poutrincourt was charmed, 
and forthwith obtained from De Monts a private 
grant of the surrounding country. He established 
his demesne here, naming the place Port Royal, 
while Champlain and De Monts, continuing their 
way around the Bay of Fundy, came at length to 
the bleak island of St. Croix, where they founded 
their colony. 

There is no need to present fully the vicissitudes of 
the tiny settlement. Scurvy and the rigours of the 
first winter carried off thirty-five colonists out of a 
total of seventy-nine. The winter of 1 606-1 607 was 
happily much less severe ; moreover, Champlain's 
" Ordre de Bon-Temps," and Lescarbot's wit and 
gaiety contributed to cheer the shivering exiles. In 
the spring, however, the first ship from St. Male 
brought bad news from France. The enemies of 
De Monts at home had triumphed, and had persuaded 
the King to cancel the charter of the Deputy. In a 
way this contretemps led to the founding of Quebec. 

Although De Monts was no longer Lieutenant- 
General of Acadia, he was yet unwilling to give 
up the scheme which appealed so strongly to his 



II THE ERA OF CHAMPLAIN 23 

adventurous nature. On his return to Paris, his 
influence had been sufficient to secure for one year 
a monopoly of the new fur trade. Champlain, 
cherishing the memory of the voyage of the 
previous year, persuaded him that the valley of the 
St. Lawrence would serve his purpose better even 
than Acadia, and between them they planned an 
expedition in which profit and adventure were evenly 
mingled. Two ships were fitted out — the one 
commanded by Champlain, the other by the elder 
Pontgrave. The latter was to revive the old trading- 
station of Tadousac, while Champlain was to establish, 
further inland, a fortified post from which expeditions 
might set forth to find the hoped-for passage to 
Cathay. 

Pontgrave sailed from Honfleur on the 5th of 
April, 1608, Champlain following on the 13th of 
the same month. His was the first ship to carry a 
permanent colony to New France. Crossing the 
wide gulf by Anticosti, the little vessel of Champlain 
stopped at Tadousac to do a timely service for his 
colleague who was now further up the river. The 
stately grandeur of the scene was not new to 
Champlain. Five years before he had glided past 
the yawning canon through which the dark Saguenay 
rushed down from the north ; he had gazed upon the 
blue sky-line of the Laurentian mountains ; in, the 
caravel of De Chastes the surging tide had carried 



24 OLD QUEBEC chap, ii 

him past the Isle of Bacchus and the milky cataract 
of Montmorency. 

Anon the channel narrows ; on the left are the 
Heights of Levi, and on the right a frowning cliff 
shoulders far into the stream. Here ancient Stada- 
cone stood; but the Iroquois passed over it long 
since, and the village is gone. On this spot 
Champlain decided to establish his post, and what site 
could be more suitable than that found by the Breton 
manners as they rounded the point of Orleans ? 
They had entered a beautiful harbour where an 
armada might safely ride at anchor. On their left 
the Heights of Levi formed the southern boundary of 
the glistening basin ; on their right, a tiny river 
murmured through the lowlands ; and beyond it a 
rugged promontory thrust into the current a tower 
of rock, commanding the narrow channel into which 
the mighty St. Lawrence was here compressed. The 
solitude of a forest wilderness now hung over the 
site of Stadacone. On the narrow wooded strand 
at the base of this rocky eyrie, Champlain made a 
landing. 

Trees were felled, and in the clearing the log 
foundations of" L'Habitation " were laid. Ere the 
summer ended it was completed ; and a sketch from 
Champlain's own unskilled pencil has preserved its 
grotesque likeness. First of all there was a moat, 
then a staunch wall of logs, with loopholes for 







»3 , 




nni 


1^ 


^I^B^HEJH 


n 


^^ 


^^^R^^^^^^^^^^^HE*^ 


^ 


S| 


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H^^^^^Hr 


*si 


M 


mm 




1 




ilHli 


^H 


bB^IHI^S^^^'^'''' m 


H^^^H 


^^H 


mSB^Bl^SBIS^^ ^'''"^ '^'^ 


H^^H 


B^H 


^^*y^M|. ,v -^aj 


m^M 


^1 




H 


1 


A^uB^^^^^^^^.- ' » -"^^fll^H^^^Bi^H 


^^^^^B^^k 


^^^^^1 


^^^^*?^M^^M 


^^H 


^H 



MONTMORENCY FALLS 



CH. II THE ERA OF CHAMPLAIN 27 

musketry, and, inside, three buildings and a court- 
yard. Over all rose a dove-cot, quaintly mediaeval, 
and prettily symbolical of Champlain's peaceful 
invasion. But Indians were Indians, and two or 
three small cannon were accordingly mounted on 
salient platforms on the river-side. A large storehouse 
was also built inside the palisade ; and presently 
Champlain laid out a flower garden. 

In preparing against foes without, however, Cham- 
plain had taken no thought for foes within. Not 
all of the little company had the same enthusiasm as 
their leader, and a plot was set on foot to destroy 
him, and sell Quebec to the Spaniards and the 
Basques, Fortunately the fidelity of his pilot saved 
Champlain from assassination. Warning reached 
him in time, and he dealt fearlessly and rigorously 
with the mutinous crew. The four ringleaders were 
decoyed on board a pinnace from Tadousac, and 
seized and put in irons. The body of the chief 
conspirator swung next morning from the cross- 
trees, and his three companions were sent back to 
the galleys of France. A free pardon for the minor 
malcontents secured their loyalty from that time 
forward. 

In September, Pontgrave set sail for France, and 
Champlain and his twenty-eight companions made 
ready for the winter. Frost and snow came early 
that year, and a devastating scurvy invaded the 



28 OLD QUEBFX chap. 

Habitation. The improvident Montagnais huddled 
in their birch tepees about the fort, raving for food, 
and perishing with disease ; while of the twenty-eight 
Frenchmen there were only eight despairing survivors 
to greet the returning spring. On the 5th of June, 
however, Pontgrave's ship again arrived at Quebec, 
to the joy of Champlain and his stricken companions. 

Summer warmed their enthusiasm anew, and the 
dauntless explorer now thought only of pressing on 
westward to Cathay. To further this project, he 
consented to ally himself with the Hurons and 
Algonquins in an attack upon the Iroquois, and for 
several days their dusky allies swarmed in and around 
Quebec. At length, towards the end of June, the 
war-party set out. Champlain embarked in a shallop 
with eleven men, armed with arquebuse and match- 
lock, sword and breast-plate ; and the painted, 
shrilling foresters swarmed up the river in their bark 
canoes. From the St. Lawrence they passed into the 
Iroquois River.^ 

After destroying one of the Mohawk towns, the 
victorious raiders returned to Quebec. Champlain, 
" the man with the iron breast," had cemented 
his alliance with the northern tribes, and from this 
time forth Quebec became the great emporium for 
the fur trade of the continent. 

In 1 613 Champlain's enthusiasm was kindled by 

1 Now the Richelieu. 



II THE ERA OF CHAMPLAIN 29 

the tale of one Nicolas de Vignau,who claimed to have 
traced the Ottawa to its source in a great lake, which 
also emptied itself through a northern river into an 
unknown sea. Champlain set off with Vignau and 
three others to establish this new route to Cathay. 
In two birch canoes they proceeded up the St. 
Lawrence and into the rushing Ottawa. Portaging 
around the seething Chaudiere, they came at length 
to AUumette Island. Here the old Algonquin chief, 
Tessouat, received them ; but he presently convinced 
Champlain that there was no such northern route as 
he looked to find. Whereupon Vignau confessed his 
imposture, and Champlain generously let him go 
unpunished. 

Meanwhile, De Monts had wearied of his New 
World enterprise, and to secure the interests of his 
colony Champlain was constrained to make annual 
voyages to France. In 16 12 he found a protector in 
the Comte de Soissons, who appointed the discoverer 
his deputy in New France. Soissons, however, died 
in the same year ; but fortunately the Prince of 
Conde, by whom he was succeeded, was also well- 
disposed, and retained Champlain as his lieutenant. 

Up to this time Quebec had realised only an 
elementary form of colonisation. The entire popu- 
lation numbered less than fifty persons, and the city 
consisted of the fortified post at the foot of the cliff, 
with a few cabins clustering about the log palisades. 



30 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

But on his visit to France in 1615, Champlain took 
a step forward in his policy. Hitherto the dwellers 
at Quebec had been transients. They came not to 
take up residence, but to trade, intending to return 
again to France as soon as possible. The fear of a 
death unshriven likewise contributed to tentative 
settlement ; and to meet the latter want, Champlain 
resolved to establish a church in his colony. Four 
Recollet friars — Franciscans of the Strict Observ- 
ance — were easily persuaded to return with him to 
Quebec. Burning with holy zeal, they confessed 
their sins, received absolution, and embarked at 
Honfleur on the 24th of April, 1 6 1 5. A month later 
they arrived at Tadousac, and sailed on to Quebec. 
Every new arrival increased the surprise of the 
bewildered Indians, who gazed with suspicion upon 
the four mendicant friars, in their coarse, gray 
soutanes girt at the waist with the knotted cord 
of St. Francis of Assisi, and wearing peaked capotes 
and thick wooden sandals. 

The site of the first church in New France was 
selected without delay. It stood on the strand near 
the Cul-de-sac, a little distance from the Habitation. 
Its construction was simple and speedy, and before 
the end of June the half-hundred citizens of Quebec 
knelt upon the bare ground and reverently listened 
to the first Mass ever said in Canada. The guns of 
the ship in the harbour, and the cannon on the ram- 



II 



THE ERA OF CHAMPLAIN 



31 



parts, boomed forth in honour of the event. That 
day the priesthood began its long regime. The colo- 
nial policy of New France had now been definitely 
shaped. Henceforth this new Power would stride 
into the wilderness with the crucifix in one hand and 
the sword in the other — for God and for the King; 




BONNE STE. ANNE (^OLD CHURCH) 



by baptism, binding the heathen to the faith, and 
by co-operation with the native tribes against the 
Iroquois, making Quebec the heart and soul of the 
vast Indian country, whose boundaries no one knew, 
and whose wealth none could divine. 

In pursuance of this policy. Father Dolbeau, with 
much suffering, accompanied the roving Montagnais 
to their northern hunting-grounds. Their wander- 



32 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

ings were so wide that, before he returned, the priest 
had encountered the Esquimaux of Labrador. Mean- 
while, Pere Joseph made his way to the Sault St. 
Louis, where a mighty concourse of savages was 
assembled ; and when the war-conference was ended 
he went back with the Hurons to their villages. 
Champlain and Etienne Brule, the most daring bush- 
man in New France, followed him thither by way of 
the Ottawa, Lake Nipissing, French River, and the 
Georgian Bay. Thus Lake Huron was discovered. 
Then, from Cahiague, the Huron capital, set out the 
memorable war-party of 1615, which came near to 
altering the fate of the Colony. Up the Severn, 
across Lake Simcoe, thence by portage route to the 
valley of the Trent, they arrived at Lake Ontario. 
Crossing to the south shore, they hid their canoes in 
the forest and were soon in Iroquois territory ; but 
when they came within sight of the Onondaga town, 
Champlain was no longer able to control his naked 
allies, and in spite of his precautions they rushed the 
palisade, only to be beaten back and scattered. The 
muskets of the twelve Frenchmen alone saved a 
rout, Champlain himself being wounded ; and with 
much chagrin the dispersed Hurons made their way 
back to Lake Ontario. They refused even to escort 
their wounded leader to Quebec as they had prom- 
ised, and he was obliged to spend the winter in the 
lodge of one of the chiefs. He hunted and fished 



II THE ERA OF CHAMPLAIN S3 

with the Hurons, and in one of these expeditions he 
was lost in the forest for several days, being only 
saved by that wonderful resource which marked his 
character. When the spring came again Champlain 
set off for Quebec, guided by his kind host Durantal. 
He reached the fort in July, after an absence of a 
year, and the inhabitants, who had long since believed 
him dead, assembled in the Recollet church for a 
special thanksgiving service — nor without good 
reason, for upon the inveterate ruler and leader 
depended the destiny of France in America, 

The condition of the Httle colony had not im- 
proved during the absence of the governing and 
inspiring spirit. From the force of circumstances, 
it did not at once improve upon Champlain's return. 
These first settlers of Quebec, whose food and 
living were easily got, and with no ambition to 
work or trade, idled their time away. Gambling and 
drinking were their common diversions, the more 
reckless spirits taking to the woods and adopting 
the savage life of the hunting tribes. These became 
the famous coureurs de bois^ the picturesque vagrants 
who were destined in the succeeding years to con- 
stitute so serious a "problem" in the administration 
of New France. At first Champlain could do little 
more than hold his colony together. Intelligent as 
his purposes were, he received no help from the 
Court of France or from the Viceroy De Monts, 



34 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

though the importance of the enterprise of colonisa- 
tion was set before Europe with every circumstance 
of national pride and no detail of responsibility, 

A painful evidence of the slight importance which 
the Louvre attached to New France is furnished by 
the frequent and easy changes in its patronage to 
which reference has already been made. On the 
imprisonment of Conde, the young Due de Mont- 
morency purchased for a song the Lieutenancy of 
New France, and he in turn sold it to his nephew, 
Henri Levis, the Due de Ventadour, All except 
De Ventadour had been moved by the lust of gain; 
in his case, however, the motive was religious — to 
win the infidels of the New World to the faith of the 
Old. The Jesuits were his chosen instruments; and 
accordingly, in the summer of 1625, Charles Lale- 
ment, Enemond Masse, and Jean de Brebeuf, 
landed at Quebec. No guns boomed a welcome to 
the disciples of Loyola. No salvos of artillery hailed 
their arrival. Their reception was even distressing. 
In the temporary absence of Champlain, the Calvin- 
ist Emery de Caen was in charge of the fort, and in 
the violence of his heresy refused them shelter. The 
inhabitants, likewise, declined to admit the new- 
comers to their homes. In despair at such treatment 
the three Jesuits were on the point of returning to 
France, when the hospitable Recollets invited them 
to the convent at Notre Dame des Anges. In Sep- 



II THE ERA OF CHAMPLAIN 35 

tember the Jesuits made a clearing on the opposite 
side of the St. Charles, and here they began to build 
a convent of their own. Thus had the forty-three 
French exiles, who now made the permanent popu- 
lation of Quebec, a sufficiency of both Recollets and 
Jesuits for their spiritual guidance. Lalement soon 
became the keeper of Champlain's conscience, and 
from this time forward the Jesuits were to have 
their way in New France. 

In 1627 Richelieu's policy of absolutism was ex- 
tended also to the New World. Revoking the 
charter of De Caen the Huguenot merchant, he or- 
ganised the Company of One Hundred Associates, 
of which he was himself the head. In return for 
sovereign powers and a perpetual monopoly of the 
fur trade, this society was to people New France 
with artisans and colonists, whom they were pledged 
to provide with cleared lands for agriculture and to 
maintain. Huguenots, moreover, were to be for 
ever excluded from the colony. 

For a time the new company took an honest view 
of its obligations — but only for a time. Within a 
year or so, Quebec was again on the verge of star- 
vation ; and in the spring of 1629 the famished in- 
habitants were eagerly awaiting the Company's ships 
from France. By July their patience was almost 
worn out, when at last the watchers at Cap Tour- 
mente brought the news that a fleet of six vessels 



;^6 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

had reached Tadousac. Quebec could scarcely await 
their arrival, and the more eager inhabitants pre- 
pared to meet the ships down the river. But sud- 
denly two Indian canoes swung round the point of 
Orleans. These made hot haste for the rock, and 
breathlessly announced that the fleet in the river was 
a hostile English squadron, and that a fishing village 
had already been pillaged and destroyed. Joy now 
became consternation. Unknown to the distant 
colony, war between France and England had been 
declared. 

Quebec was not left long in suspense, for next day 
the messengers of the English admiral. Sir David 
Kirke, himself a Huguenot refugee, arrived with a 
demand for surrender. The heart of the valiant 
Champlain was wrung. He had inspected his empty 
magazine and the rickety fort which the improvidence 
of the Company had allowed to fall into ruin. But 
even the weakness of his starved and paltry garrison 
did not afi^ect his fortitude. Kirke's envoy was cour- 
teously dismissed, with the bold assurance that Que- 
bec would defend itself to the last man. Champlain 
still clung to the hope that supplies would arrive 
from France ; and even as he uttered his bold defi- 
ance, De Roquemont's convoy and fleet of transports 
had entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Quebec 
strained eager eyes for the succouring sail. Night and 
day the tiny garrison stood to the guns, resolving to 



II THE ERA OF CHAMPLAIN 37 

spend their remaining fifty pounds of gunpowder 
with equal fervour in welcome of friend or foe. 

But weeks wore into months, and misery and de- 
spair proportionately increased. Here were nearly 
a hundred persons huddled In a decayed fortress In 
the wilderness, with seven ounces of pounded pease 
for a daily ration. By and by this supply also failed, 
and the starving Inhabitants were driven into the 
wood in search of acorns and roots. Then came the 
news, which Champlain had long been dreading, that 
De Roquemont's fleet had fallen Into the hands of 
Sir David Kirke. The last hope of saving Quebec 
was now brushed away. But the English fleet did 
not yet summon the garrison to surrender, and In- 
stead of making immediate assault, Kirke continued 
to blockade the River and the Gulf. 

Another winter dragged by, and spring came again. 
The people continued to starve, ever hoping that 
the enemy would raise the siege. This hope was 
not to be fulfilled. On the 19th of July three 
English ships sailed up the river, and with the 
apathy of despair the gallant Champlain and his 
sixteen famished soldiers watched them anchor in 
the basin. The bitter end was come. 

Next day, the 20th of July, 1629, the English 
flag floated, for the first time, over the fortress of 
Quebec. " There was not in the sayde forte at the 
tyme of the rendition of the same, to this examin- 



38 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

ate's knowledge, any victuals, save only one tubb 
of bitter roots " — such is the evidence of one of 
Kirke's captains. This, in brief, is the story of the 
first of the five sieges of Quebec. 

When Lewis Kirke, the Admiral's brother, took 
possession of the city in the name of King Charles, 
he treated his captives with high courtesy. The 
French inhabitants were given the option of remain- 
ing in peaceful possession of their homes, or being 
transported back to France. Louis Hebert, the 
chemist, and his relatives the Couillards, the only 
two families of colonists in the strict sense of the 
word, elected to remain on their small holdings. 
Champlain and the Jesuits, choosing to return to 
France, embarked in the ship of Thomas Kirke, who 
was sailing down the river to join his brother's fleet 
at Tadousac. When they were opposite Mai Baie, 
about twenty-five leagues below Quebec, a strange 
sail bore in sight. She proved to be a French ship 
which had stolen past Tadousac with succours for 
Quebec. The George immediately gave chase, a sharp 
fight ensued, but in the end the Frenchman struck 
his flag, and the new prize was borne down the river. 

Sir David Kirke now continued homeward with 
his prisoners. They reached Plymouth in October, 
and from here the devoted and patriotic Champlain 
went to London to urge the French ambassador to 
seek the restitution of Quebec. Its capture had 



II THE ERA OF CHAMPLAIN 39 

actually occurred after the declaration of peace, and 
on that ground was held invalid. Champlain pleaded 
well and in the end prevailed. It was not, however, 
until 1632 that the fortress was restored to France 
by the Treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye ; and it is 
probable that the mercenary Charles held such a 
concession cheap when weighed in the scale with 
four hundred thousand golden crowns, the prom- 
ised dowry of Henrietta Maria. 

During the three years of English occupation 
Quebec had made no progress. The Indians had 
found in the newcomers a spirit in rough contrast 
with the forbearance and good-fellowship of the 
French. Disliking the brusqueness of the new 
rulers, the Algonquins now shunned the city. Even 
the fort had been burned to the ground, and the 
Hebert homestead alone made a sweet oasis in a 
desert of neglect and dilapidation. 

Such was the condition of the settlement in the 
summer of 1632, when Emery de Caen again sailed 
into the harbour. He had come to take over 
possession from the English. Despite his old 
antipathy, his fierce Calvinism, he now brought 
with him — in some sense the price of his com- 
mission — the Jesuits Pere de Noue and Pere le 
Jeune ; and joyfully the exiled French gathered at 
the house of honest Hebert to hear Mass after the 
lapse of three years. 



40 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

It Is not clear why the Huguenot De Caen was 
chosen to retake possession of Quebec. The ex- 
pedition was fitted out at his own expense ; and 
for recompense, a monopoly of the fur trade was 
granted him for one year. At the end of that time 
the Company of One Hundred Associates was to 
resume the privileges of its charter. Thus it hap- 
pened that, in 1633, Champlain was reappointed 
Governor of New France by the astute Richelieu. 

With three vessels Champlain set sail on the 23rd 
of March, and two months later he look over the 
command of Quebec from De Caen. The next two 
years passed placidly for the city. The Indians 
rejoiced to have " the man with the iron breast " back 
in their lodges, and the harbour swarmed once more 
with friendly canoes. Meanwhile, trade increased 
with the Indians, and the settlement became a genu- 
ine commercial colony. On one occasion as many as 
seven hundred Hurons flocked to Quebec with their 
hunting trophies, and at length every midsummer 
came to be marked by an Indian Fair. Pere le 
Jeune's Relation gives a quaint description of one of 
the annual visits of the tribes. On the 24th of July, 
1633, the harbour was dotted with fur-laden canoes 
from the Ottawa and from Lake Huron. Landing 
at the Cul-de-sac, the dusky braves took possession 
of the strand below the rock, where they hastily set 
up their portable huts of birch-bark. "Some," says 



II THE ERA OF CHAMPLAIN 41 

the Jesuit chronicler, " had come only to gamble or 
to steal ; others out of mere curiosity ; while the 
wiser and more businesslike among them had come 
to barter their furs and sacks of tobacco leaves." 
The second day of the visitation was marked by a 
solemn conclave of the chiefs and the officers of 
Fort St. Louis — a smoking pow-wow for the ex- 
change of compliments and wampum. 

The courtyard of the fort witnessed this garish 
function. The chiefs and principal men of each 
village grouped themselves together. Some were 
garbed in beaver skins, others in the shaggy hide of 
the bear. Still others were guiltless of apparel, and 
all bore themselves with an excessive dignity border- 
ing on burlesque. Brebeuf, Daniel, and Davost stood 
by in their sable vestments ; and in the midst of all 
was Champlain surrounded by the soldiers of his 
garrison. The next two days were given up to trade 
— a beaver-skin exchanging for a tin kettle, a bright 
cloth, or a string of beads. On the fifth day a huge 
feast was given, by means of which savage appetites 
forced the French to disgorge a moiety of their 
profit. But before another dawn the Indians had 
vanished, and Quebec smiled to see its storehouses 
full of furs. 

By this time the little settlement had more than 
ever taken on the appearance of a mission. The 
Recollets had virtually been excluded from New 



42 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

France, the influence of the Jesuits having permeated 
even the ofiicial atmosphere of Fort St. Louis. It 
has been claimed that, in his younger years, Cham- 
plain was a Huguenot. It is more likely he was a 
Catholic of a liberal type ; and certainly in his last 
years a Jesuit became his spiritual adviser. Both 
the soldier and the merchant gave way to the priestly 
influence in the purposes of Government. The 
cross was to precede the sword of empire on the 
march into the wilderness. ■ 

In the midst of peace and progress a heavy loss 
was now to befall Quebec. Champlain, beyond sixty- 
eight years of age, lay prostrate in the fort. His 
last illness had come upon him, and on Christmas 
Day, 1635, the father of New France passed away. 
Soldiers, priests, and settlers sorrowfully followed his 
remains to the little church on the cliff, Notre Dame 
de la Recouvrance, which Champlain himself had 
founded in honour of the restitution of the city, and 
where he had renewed so often his faith and hope 
and courage. 

A great spirit had crossed the bourne. The whole 
history of Canada has no fairer pages than those 
which deal with the deeds of the founder of Quebec. 
His was a character great and unselfish, often mis- 
taken, but always high-minded and just ; not free from 
the credulity that characterised his generation, but 
with a spirit of romantic endurance which leaves the 



II THE ERA OF CHAMPLAIN 43 

New World still his debtor ; with a love of high em- 
prise unsullied by lust of gain or by cruelty or vain- 
glory. Like Moses, he went forth into a land of 
promise ; and, like Moses, the place of his sepulchre 
is not known. It is, however, recorded that his re- 
mains were placed " dans un sepulcre particulierT 
During the administration of Montmagny a small 
chapel adjoining Notre Dame de la Recouvrance came 
to be known as " Champlain's Chapel," and for a long 
time this was believed to mark the founder's tomb. 
But in 1856 an excavation at the foot of Breakneck 
Stairs revealed a curious vault containing human 
bones ; and later investigation has led to the belief 
that the last resting-place of Champlain was a rocky 
niche part way down Mountain Hill, in full view of 
the strand upon which his early Habitation was built. 



CHAPTER III 

THE HEROIC AGE OF NEW FRANCE 

The Indians with whom the French explorers first 
came in contact were of the Algonquin family. 
Under different tribal names this race spread itself 
over the Atlantic seaboard from Carolina to Hud- 
son's Bay, and farther west than the Great Lakes. 
In the comparatively small area now forming 
northern New York lived the Iroquois, or Five 
Nation Indians, who, like the Helvetii of old, out- 
stripped all the other tribes in valour, and at the 
time of the arrival of the Europeans were engaged 
in reducing their Algonquin foes to subjection. The 
Hurons, who figure so prominently in early Canadian 
annals, were of Iroquois stock ; but owing to their 
situation in the Georgian Bay peninsula, and their 
alliance with the neighbouring Algonquins, they 
became the especial object of Iroquois enmity, and 
the feud went on till they were exterminated. 

The story of this conflict so closely concerns the 
history of Quebec, that the period intervening 

44 



cH.iii HEROIC AGE OF NEW FRANCE 45 

between the death of Champlain and the estabhsh- 
ment of Royal Government has been described as the 
Heroic Age of New France. Indeed, on looking back 
over the trials of that period, it seems incredible 
that the colony was able to weather the storms of 
Iroquois savagery by which it was swept. But this 
dark misery was so clearly the outcome of French 
colonial policy, that a reference to the underlying 
principles of that system is necessary. 

The French idea of colonisation was propagandism. 
True, it was not actually born of that deep principle, 
but rather of high adventure and of the alluring 
mystery of discovery. Religion, however, very soon 
became its prevailing impulse. The expedition of Ver- 
razzano had its raison d'etre in nothing higher than 
the cupidity of Francis I., who was dazzled by legends 
of Mexican gold and Peruvian silver; but religion 
inspired Cartier to his great adventure ten years later. 

The Old World was in the throes of the Reforma- 
tion. With shafts of heresy, Luther in Germany 
and Calvin in France were assailing the Catholic 
Church, and devout Catholics like Cabot had con- 
ceived the idea of requiting the Church for her losses 
in the Old World by religious conquests in the New. 
Roberval's voyage had been likewise undertaken for 
discovery, settlement, and the conversion of the 
Indians. The aged De Chastes, the patron of 
Champlain, had been animated almostv entirely by a 



46 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

religious motive, and the explorer's own frequent 
declaration was that " the salvation of a single soul 
is worth more than an empire." 

Such sentiments alone were enough to explain 
the friendship of Champlain with the Hurons and 
Algonquins, on whose lands he had settled his colony, 
and to whom the French owed something at least 
in the way of assistance or protection. But apart 
from sense of a religious obligation, he was forced 
to depend on the Indians to guide him through the 
country he wished to explore, and their goodwill 
was also necessary to develop the fur trade for the 
great companies. It was natural, therefore, that 
Champlain should enter into alliance with the 
neighbouring tribes, whose amity meant so much to 
the struggling settlement. But New France was 
destined to reap bitter fruits from this seeding. 

The offensive and defensive bond against the 
Iroquois almost cost the colony its existence. It 
was, in fact, another Hundred Years' War with a foe 
as implacable as death itself The constant aim of 
the French was to organise and harmonise the tribes 
against their common enemy, and to establish a 
league of which Quebec would be the heart and 
head. All this was in direct contrast with the English 
system, which took no account whatever of the Indian 
tribes. The English colonists in Connecticut, New 
Hampshire, and Virginia displaced the Indian ; the 



Ill HEROIC AGE OF NEW FRANCE 47 

French made him part of their system. New France 
was a trading colony, New England an agricultural 
colony. The French, with few exceptions, did not 
go to the New World to make a home, but to secure 
fortunes ; the English colonists went to the New 
World to settle ; they bore with them their house- 
hold gods. 

For a hundred years or more, New France was 
dependent on Old France for provisions ; and 
even up to the death of Champlain, there were, 
in fact, only two plots of ground under cultivation 
by French settlers — that of Louis Hebert in Upper 
Town, and the small farm of the Recollects on the 
St. Charles. In New England, the settlers first of 
all cleared the land, laid out their farms, and stored 
their provisions against the winter season. They 
traded with the Indians and acquired wealth, and for 
their greater convenience they made purchases in 
the Old World. Thus, from the first days almost, 
the New England Colonies were self-contained, 
while New France depended on Europe to a degree 
amazing and pathetic. This fact strikes the key- 
note of the French regime, explaining, as it does, 
most of the trials and tribulations of New France in 
its perennial warfare with the Iroquois, and in the 
later friction with New England. 

Nor is it astonishing that New France never 
became self-reliant. From first to last her natural 



48 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

growth was throttled, either by the greed of the fur 
companies or by the mistaken paternaHsm of the 
Bourbons. The Company of One Hundred Asso- 
ciates, which RicheHeu founded in 1624, was no im- 
provement on the previous administrations of New 
France, in spite of its elaborate charter and the fact 
that Richelieu himself was at the head of it. The 
fur companies were doubly politic in discouraging 
agriculture, for the purchase of peltries thus became 
practically the sole industry of the colony, while at 
the same time the people were left dependent upon 
the stores of the company for food. The colonisation 
of New England was intensive, the colonisation of 
New France extensive ; New England cleared and 
built as occasion demanded; New France merely 
established bases from which to penetrate the wilder- 
ness. Before the death of Champlain, the white 
crosses which her pioneers were wont to set up were 
to be found as far west as Lake Huron, and before 
the close of the seventeenth century they dotted the 
trackless forests from Michillimackinac to New Or- 
leans. It is not surprising, then, that the Indians be- 
came an important factor in the history of Canada. 

M. de Montmagny, Champlain's successor, ar- 
rived in the spring of 1636. He was a Knight 
of Malta, a brave soldier, and a religious fanatic. 
During the twelve years of his administration, 
Quebec was almost constantly defending itself against 



HI HEROIC AGE OF NEW FRANCE 49 

the Iroquois. Redoubled efforts to convert the 
Indians also mark this period. The first of these 
efforts was the pious project of M. de Sillery, a 
Knight of Malta. De Sillery had wearied of the gay 
court of Fontainebleau, and in 1637 ^^ supplied 
the means whereby the Jesuit Le Jeune established 
a hostel for converted Algonquins. The site chosen 
was a few miles up the river from Quebec ; and 
although Iroquois hostility soon made havoc of the 
mission, the spot is known to this day as Sillery 
Cove. 

In the same year, 1637, the Jesuits began a 
wooden structure in the rear of the fort, resolving 
to devote the six thousand crowns donated by 
the Marquis de Gamache, to the founding of a 
school for Indian children, and a college for French 
boys. Father Daniel brought down the first pupil 
from the Huron country, when he returned to 
Quebec, and the interpreter Nicollet skilfully induced 
several other Indian families to send hostages to the 
Jesuit seminary. But the untamed savage drank 
shyly at the fountain of learning, and Father Le 
Jeune relates of the dusky scholars that one ran 
away, two ate themselves to death, a fourth was 
kidnapped by his affectionate parent, and three others 
stole a canoe, loaded it to the gunwale with such 
commodil:ies and food as they could lay hands upon, 
and escaped up the river. The indefatigable Jesuits, 



50 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

however, were not to be discouraged, and they still 
wrote with delight of their savage province. Their 
ardent Relations were sent regularly to France, and 
the hearts of princesses in the Faubourg St. Germain, 
and of nuns in the convents of Montmartre were 
alike fired with zeal for the Canadian mission. 

" Is there no charitable and virtuous lady," 
pleaded Le Jeune, " who will come to this country 
to gather up the blood of Christ by teaching His 
word to the little Indian girls ? " Thirteen nuns in 
a single convent straightway vowed their lives to the 
far-off mission ; but the touching appeal of the Jesuit 
father sank deepest of all in the heart of the fever- 
stricken Madame de la Peltrie. 

A review of the early life of Madame de la Peltrie 
makes it easy to understand how her mind was 
readily inflamed by the tearful Relations des Jesuits. 
As a child religious ecstasy had possessed her ardent 
mind ; and her father, a gentleman of Normandy, 
was continually striving against her inclinations for 
the cloister. Twice he carried her back from a 
convent whither she had fled, and by a series of 
devices at length contrived a happy marriage for 
her. At twenty-two she was left a widow and 
childless, and once more the fervour of her early 
years consumed her. She resolved afresh to be a nun. 
Her father entreated and, under threat of disinheri- 
tance, commanded her to marry again. Meanwhile, 



Ill HEROIC AGE OF NEW FRANCE 51 

what was being done in Canada came to her know- 
ledge, and increased her ardour tenfold. A Jesuit, 
of whom she sought counsel in her dilemma, suggested 
a casuistical compromise. Through him a formal 




MARIE DE l'iNCARNATION 

marriage was arranged, and the death of her father 
soon afterwards left herself and her revenues free for 
pious enterprise in New France. 

Repairing to the Ursuline Convent at Tours, 
Madame de la Peltrie made choice of three nuns to 
share with her the bliss of founding a convent at 



52 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

Quebec. The most remarkable of these was the devout 
Marie de I'lncarnation. At this time the latter was 
forty years of age, tall, stately, and forceful in appear- 
ance, and with a history as romantic as that of Madame 
de la Peltrie herself At seventeen she had made an 
unhappy marriage. Two years later her husband 
died, and left her with an infant son. She gave the 
child into the charge of her sister, and devoted her- 
self to solitude and religious meditation. Visions, 
ecstasies, rapture, and dejection took alternate posses- 
sion of her mind. Fastings and the severest forms 
of discipline henceforward made up the melancholy 
routine of the life of the " holy widow." Love for 
her child for a long time kept her from taking the veil, 
but at length, by prayer and fasting, she emancipated 
herself from this maternal weakness of the flesh, and 
was rapturously received by the Ursulines of Tours. 
Yet in spite of the vagaries of her devout mind, 
Madame de I'lncarnation possessed a singular aptness 
for practical affairs. Several of her early years had 
been spent in the house of her brother-in-law, where 
she had displayed an amazing talent for the ordinary 
business of life. A knowledge of this trait had 
doubtless led the Jesuits to press her appointment 
as Superior of the new Ursuline Convent which 
Madame de la Peltrie proposed establishing at Quebec. 
Meanwhile, the Duchesse d'Aiguillon, Richelieu's 
niece, had also been moved by the pleadings from 



Ill HEROIC AGE OF NEW FRANCE S3 

Quebec, and she determined to found a Hotel-Dieu. 
Three nuns of the Hospital were entrusted with this 
project. 

The ship bearing Madame de la Peltrie, the three 
Ursulines, and the three Hospitalieres set sail from 
Dieppe early in May, 1639. The excitement and 
activity of the outer world must have contrasted 
strangely with the peacefulness of their quiet cloisters; 
yet the frail nuns were buoyed up by a marvellous 
enthusiasm and a noble faith. This faith, however, 
was destined to be sorely tried. Winds and waves 
beset them on the way, icebergs struck terror 
into their spirits, and it was not till the middle of 
July that the leaking ship came to anchor in 
the harbour of Tadousac. Thence they proceeded 
in small boats up the river; and on the ist of 
August the welcoming cannon of Fort St. Louis 
boomed forth, and Quebec was en fete in honour of 
so notable an arrival. 

Pending the erection of a suitable building at 
Quebec, the nuns of the Hospital established them- 
selves at the mission palisade of Sillery, and the 
Ursulines began their work in the small wooden 
structure on the river's brink below the rock. An 
outbreak of smallpox among the Indians soon over- 
crowded their wretched tenement, and infected savages 
came thither only to die. Worn out with labour, the 
indefatigable nuns continued bravely to contend with 



54 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

the disease and suffering around them, and the 
monuments of their high endurance and beautiful 
devotion are to be found to-day in the ivy-clad 
cloisters in Garden Street, where the gentle Ursulines 
still minister to the maidens of French Canada ; 
and in the pretentious hospital on Palace Hill where ^ 
nuns still care tenderly for the sick and dying, and 
read the inspiring history of their order back to 
1639. 

About the middle of the seventeenth century a 
stranger in Quebec would have been surprised to find 
that the city lacked nothing so much as people. 
Reversing the natural law of supply and demand, it 
built churches before it had worshippers, schools 
before it had scholars, and hospitals before it had 
patients. The purpose was to attract settlement by 
preparing beforehand for the wants of colonists. 
These early establishments have, however, justified 
themselves by a continuous and permanent history, 
and Quebec is now, as it was nearly three centuries 
ago, a city of churches and convents. The bells 
rang then, as now, from morning till night, Gregorian 
chants streamed out through convent windows, and 
the black-robed priest was the soul of all. 

Montmagny rebuilt in stone the fort on the 
precipice, and spared nothing to give the place a 
formidable appearance. For safety the church and 
presbytery of the Jesuits stood close to the parapet. 



Ill HEROIC AGE OF NEW FRANCE SS 

The Ursulines, with less caution, began to build their 
tiny convent in the neighbouring woods. The first 
Hotel-Dieu was rising on the cliff overlooking the 
valley of the St. Charles, and not far away was the new 
farm of Louis Hebert, the chemist — all together 
making a picture of progress. Champlain's first 




URSULINE NUNS OF QUEBEC (sALLE d'eTUDE, NOVICIAT) 



Habitation had fallen to ruin, but a few wooden 
tenements still remained to mark the earliest settle- 
ment in Lower Town, and the Church of the Recollets 
told the tale of past perils and an unfailing faith. A 
league or so up the river was the Algonquin mission 
of Sillery, with its clustered cabins and rude oratory, 
surrounded by a palisade. 

Montmagny was a devote surrounded by a suite 
as pious as himself. Through these amenable spirits 



S6 



OLD QUEBEC 



CHAP. 



the Jesuits were supreme not only in matters of 
religion, but in matters of state. Indeed, in this 
ecclesiastically governed community there was little 
distinction between sacred and secular matters. The 
church was the centre of affairs. A stake was planted 
before the sacred edifice bearing a placard ofwarn- 




JESUITS COLLEGE AND CHURCH 

(Latter destroyed by fire, 1807) 



ing against blasphemy, drunkenness, and neglect of 
the Mass. A pillory, with chain and iron collar, and 
a wooden horse, stood close by — suggestive means 
of religious correction. 

Even the recreations of the people partook of a 
religious character. The feast of St. Joseph, the 
patron saint of New France, was celebrated with 



Ill HEROIC AGE OF NEW FRANCE 57 

pious display. On May-Day the young people of 
Quebec tripped about a maypole surmounted by a 
triple crown in honour of Jesus, Maria, and Joseph. 
The annual visits of the Company's ships from 
France, however, temporarily disturbed the calm of 
the monastic city. The genuflexions of drunken 
sailors were seldom in honour of St. Joseph ; and 
the ribald humours of visiting mariners profaned 
for a season the quiet rock of Quebec. 




CHATEAU ST. LOUIS, 1 694 

But throughout this missionary period the hatchet 
of the Iroquois was suspended over the city. Their 
dreaded war-cry rang all too often through the ad- 
jacent forests, and their stealthy tomahawks found 
victims even under the guns of Fort St. Louis. So 
daring became the incursions of the implacable 
savages that the settlers did not dare to till their 
lands. To pass from one post to another without 
a strong escort meant risk of death or capture ; 
and capture was more dreaded than death itself. 
Every year had its tale of surprises and massacres. 



58 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

The sleepless sentries on the ramparts, and the 
staunch palisades of the fort seemed insufficient 
protection against a foe as silent as an arrow and as 
swift in speeding upon its victim. At this time also 
the Jesuit missions among the distant Hurons were 
suffering unknown horrors ; but the tale of their 
disasters is for another chapter. 

Successive governors of Quebec — Montmagny, 
D'Ailleboust, and D'Argenson — pleaded with the 
home authorities to send reinforcements for their 
feeble garrison, by whom alone Quebec hoped to 
escape the ever-dreaded catastrophe. Through press 
of home affairs, and official neglect and indifference, 
these requests continued to be disregarded. Re- 
prisals were taken against the Iroquois whenever op- 
portunities occurred ; but even these were all too 
rare. 

In May, 1660, an Iroquois captive was brought to 
Quebec. A stake was erected in the Place d'Armes^ 
and in the sight of the populace the Indian was 
burned to death. A deed of this nature, occurring 
with the apparent sanction of the religious governor 
of a civilised community, must be taken to reflect 
the terrible pressure of suffering which made such 
inhuman reprisals possible. The savage nature of 
this vengeance was softened to the eyes of many by 
the poor casuistry of the Jesuits, who gave out, and 
believed, that the soul of the Mohawk would go 



Ill HEROIC AGE OF NEW FRANCE 59 

straight to Paradise on the wings of his unwelcome 
baptism. 

This particular Indian met his fate with the 
wonderful fortitude of his race, but not with their 
stoic silence. Instead, he breathed out threatenings, 
and promised the fell destruction of the pale-faced 
interlopers. Even now, he told them, hundreds of 
his kinsmen were gathering upon the Ottawa and St. 
Lawrence for the final effacement of Quebec, and 
with hideous fury the baptized savage called down 
upon them the wrath of his gods. 

Forthwith Quebec became deeply alarmed. The 
desultory attacks of the Iroquois were now to be 
exchanged for a deliberate assault in which the 
whole strength of the Five Nations should be 
thrown into the struggle. The Ursulines and 
nuns of the Hotel-Dieu forsook their convents 
to take refuge in the fortified college of the 
Jesuits, whither the fugitives from the surrounding 
settlements also fled. A company of soldiers took 
up their quarters in the Ursuline Convent, the re- 
doubts of the fort were strengthened, and barricades 
were erected in the streets of Lower Town. All 
night long sentries paced the parapets, peering anx- 
iously into the surrounding darkness, and straining 
their ears for the creeping tread in the thicket. 

After several days of watching, however, no 
Iroquois appeared, and the inhabitants began to 



66 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

breathe freely again. The more courageous returned 
to their deserted homes and farms, but the timid still 
clung to the blockhouse. The panic had also spread 
to Ville Marie,^ and the imminence of this danger 
produced one of the most brilliant exploits which 
Canadian history records — a feat of daring closely 
resembling, and not surpassed by, the achievement 
of Leonidas in the Pass of Thermopylae. 

The story is one of the finest in the picturesque 
pages of Parkman, part of whose narrative is here 
transcribed. 

Adam Daulac, or Dollard, Sieur des Ormeaux, 
was a young man of good family, who had come 
to the colony three years before, at the age of 
twenty-two. He had held some military rank in 
France, and it was not long before he set on foot a 
remarkable Indian enterprise. Sixteen young men 
caught his spirit, struck hands with him, and pledged 
their word. They bound themselves by oath to 
accept no quarter, made their wills, confessed, and 
received the sacrament. After a solemn farewell, 
they embarked in several canoes, well supplied with 
arms and ammunition. Descending the St. Lawrence, 
they entered the mouth of the Ottawa, crossed the 
Lake of Two Mountains, and slowly advanced 
against the current of the river, A few days later they 

1 Now Montreal. 



Ill HEROIC AGE OF NEW FRANCE 6i 

reached the foot of the formidable rapid called the 
" Long Sault," where a tumult of waters foaming 
among ledges and boulders barred their onward way. 
Besides, it was needless to go farther. The Iroquois 
were sure to pass the Sault, and could be fought 
here as well as elsewhere. 




^"^■yVWSam _^^SE:^VT.i 5 £ : \i * 7 ^ rl Sr i-cs^ '^-' ' Lifer « -^ 












THE URSULINES' CONVENT 



Just below the rapid stood a palisade fort, the 
work of an Algonquin war-party of the preceding 
autumn. It was a mere enclosure of trunks of small 
trees planted in a circle, and was already ruinous. 
Such as it was, the Frenchmen took possession. They 
made their fires and slung their kettles on the neigh- 
bouring shore. Here they were soon afterwards 
joined by a small party of friendly Indians, consisting 
of about forty Hurons from Quebec, under their brave 



62 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

and wily chief Etienne Annahotaha, and five Algon- 
quins led by Mituvemeg. Daulac made no objection 
to their company, so they all bivouacked together. 

In a day or two their scouts came in with tidings 
that two Iroquois canoes were coming down the 
Sault. Daulac had only time to set his men in 
ambush before the advance canoes of the enemy 
swept down the river. A few of the Iroquois escaped 
the Frenchmen's volley, and fleeing into the forest, 
they reported their mischance to their main body, 
200 in number, on the river above. Thereupon 
a fleet of canoes suddenly appeared, bounding down 
the rapids, filled with warriors eager for revenge. The 
allies had barely time to escape to their fort, leaving 
their kettles still slung over the fires. The Iroquois 
made a hasty attack, but being repulsed, they with- 
drew and fell to building a rude fort of their own 
in the neighbouring forest. This gave the French 
breathing-time, and they used it for strengthening 
their defences. They planted a row of stakes within 
their palisade, to form a double fence, and filled the 
intervening space with earth and stones to the height 
of a man, leaving twenty loopholes or more, at each 
of which three marksmen were stationed. 

Their work was still unfinished when the Iroquois 
were upon them again. They had broken to pieces 
the birch canoes of the French and their allies, and 
kindling the bark, rushed up to pile it blazing against 



Ill HEROIC AGE OF NEW FRANCE 63 

the palisade ; but so brisk and steady a fire met them 
that they recoiled, and at last gave way. Again and 
again, however, they came on, each time leaving 
many of their bravest fighters dead upon the ground. 
At length, their spirits dashed, the warriors drew 
back. A canoe was hastily sent down the river to 
call to their aid five hundred Iroquois who were 
mustered near the mouth of the Richelieu. 

Meanwhile, the defenders of the fort were harassed 
night and day with a spattering fire and a constant 
menace of attack. Thus five days passed. Hunger, 
thirst, and want of sleep wrought fatally on the 
strength of the French and their allies, who, pent up 
together in a narrow prison, fought and prayed by 
turns. Deprived as they were of water, they could 
not swallow the crushed Indian corn which was their 
only food. Some of them, under cover of a brisk fire, 
ran down to the river and filled such small vessels as 
they had. But this meagre supply only tantalised 
their thirst, and they now dug a hole in the fort, to 
be rewarded at last by a little muddy water oozing 
through the clay. 

On the fifth day an uproar of unearthly yells from 
seven hundred savage throats, mingled with a clatter- 
ing salute of musketry, told the Frenchmen that the 
expected reinforcement had come. Soon a crowd of 
warriors mustered for the attack. Cautiously they 
advanced, screeching, leaping, and firing as they came 



64 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

on ; but the French were at their posts, and every 
loophole darted its tongue of fire. Besides muskets, 
they had heavy musketoons of large calibre, which, 
scattering scraps of lead and iron among the throng of 
savages, often maimed several of them at one discharge. 
The Iroquois, astonished at the persistent vigour of 
the defence, fell back discomfited. The fire of the 
French had told upon them with deadly effect. 
Three days more wore away in a series of futile 
attacks ; and during all this time Daulac and his 
men, reeling with exhaustion, fought and prayed, 
sure of a martyr's reward. 

At length the Iroquois determined upon a grand 
final assault. Large and heavy shields, four or five 
feet high, were made by lashing together three split 
logs with the aid of cross-bars, and covered with 
these mantelets a chosen band advanced, followed by 
the motley throng of warriors. In spite of a brisk 
fire they reached the palisade, and crouching below 
the range of shot, hewed furiously with their hatchets 
to cut their way through. Daulac had crammed a 
large musketoon with powder, and lighting a fuse, he 
tried to throw it over the barrier, to burst like a 
grenade among the savages without ; but it struck 
the ragged top of one of the palisades, fell back 
among the Frenchmen and exploded, kilHng and 
wounding several of them. In the confusion which 
followed, the Iroquois got possession of the loopholes, 



Ill HEROIC AGE OF NEW FRANCE 6s 

and thrusting in their guns, fired on those within. 
In a moment they had torn a breach in the pahsade, 
then another and another. The brave Daulac was 
struclc dead, but the survivors kept up the now hope- 
less fight. With sword, hatchet, or knife, they threw 
themselves against the throng of enemies, striking 
and stabbing with the fury of madmen, till the 
Iroquois, despairing of taking them alive, fired volley 
after volley and shot them down. All was over, 
and a burst of triumphant yells proclaimed the dear- 
bought victory. 

To the colony it proved salvation. The Iroquois 
had had fighting enough. If seventeen Frenchmen 
and a handful of Indian allies, behind a picket fence, 
could hold seven hundred warriors at bay so long, 
what might they expect from many such fighting 
behind walls of stone ? For that year they thought 
no more of capturing Quebec and Ville Marie, but 
returned to their villages dejected and amazed, to 
howl over their losses, and nurse their dashed courage 
for a day of vengeance. 



CHAPTER IV 

"ad MAJOREM DEI GLORIAM " 

If on its material side French colonial policy took 
account of the Indian, it did so much more on 
its religious side. Quebec was the farthest outpost 
of CathoHcism. New France was for ever to be 
free from the taint of heresy, allowing none but 
Catholic settlers within her gates ; and Huguenots, 
as we have seen, were specifically excluded. The 
Indians were to be rescued from heathen darkness 
and led into the sacred light of the Church. Jesuit 
missions thus became a salient feature in the early 
history of Quebec, the nerve centre of the move- 
ment being the palisaded convent on the httle St. 
Charles. 

To go back in review. On the retrocession of 
Quebec by the English, under the Treaty of St. 
Germain-en-Laye, in the time of Champlain, the 
influence of the Jesuits was sufficient to secure for 
themselves the undivided control of the Canadian 
mission. Returning to Quebec in 1632, Father Le 

66 



cH.iv "AD MAJOREM DEI GLORIAM " 67 

Jeune and his two companions had estabHshed them- 
selves in the half-ruined convent of Notre Dame 
des Anges, built by the Recollets sixteen years 
before. The log stockade enclosed two buildings, 
the smaller of which served as storehouse, stable, 
and workshop, and the larger as chapel and refectory. 
Four tiny cells opened off the latter, and in these the 
fathers lodged, while the lay brothers and the work- 
men found apartments in the garret and the cellar. 
The regimen of this crude establishment was severely 
ascetic. The day began with early Mass and closed 
with evening prayers. The intervening time was 
spent by the laymen in cultivating the little clearing, 
and by the fathers in hearing confessions at the fort 
a mile away, or in struggling with the Algonquin 
idiom, by the vague assistance of one Pierre, an 
Indian proselyte, who, in weakness of flesh, ran away 
when the season of Lent drew near. 

The strength of the Jesuits was increased in the 
spring of 1633 by the arrival of four new priests. 
Of these the most remarkable was Jean de Brebeuf, 
the descendant of a noble family in Normandy, and 
destined to prove his own nobility by an intrepid 
zeal and an almost incredible courage. 

Le Jeune's distressful experiment with a band of 
wandering Algonquins had convinced the Jesuits that 
their schemes of mission-conquest could not bear 
much fruit if they were confined to the vagrant 



68 OLD QUEBEC 



CHAP. 



tribes of the north. Farther west in the peninsula 
of the great lakes lived Indians of fixed habits and 
domicile, and otherwise further advanced towards civi- 
lisation than the improvident hunting tribes round 
about Quebec. Of these the most notable were the 
Hurons. As long before as 1615 the Recollet Le 
Caron had gone among them, and several years later 
Brebeuf had made the perilous lodges of Ihonatiria 
his habitation, but had at length returned to France. 
On his coming to Quebec again in the spring of 
1633, Brebeuf anxiously turned his thoughts towards 
his former mission, awaiting only a favourable oppor- 
tunity to forsake the comparative safety of the city 
of Quebec for the gloomy shores of Lake Huron 
and " the greater glory of God." 

Midsummer brought the annual swarm of Hurons 
to the trading fair at Quebec. For a week the all 
but naked savages overran the little settlement, their 
animal curiosity almost driving the French to dis- 
traction, and their casual peculations causing much 
annoyance. But their presence was a necessary evil, 
if the Fur Company was to declare its dividends. 
Hence long-suffering courtesy became essential both 
to the peace of the city and to future interests so 
much at stake. 

A powerful consideration with the community was 
the anxiety of the Jesuits to go back with the Indians 
to their villages on Lake Huron. Champlain, when 



IV "AD MAJOREM DEI GLORIAM" 69 

governor, had espoused this project in the most 
seductive of his speeches. " These are our fathers," 
he had announced to the sixty chiefs gathered for the 
nonce in the quadrangle of the Fort. " We love 
them more than we love ourselves. The whole 
French nation honours them. They do not go 
among you for your furs. They have left their 
friends and their country to show you the way 
to the happy hunting-grounds. If you love the 
French, as you say you do, then love and honour 
these our fathers, and care for them in your distant 
villages." 

But the wind bloweth where it listeth, and the 
Indian mind was no more sure. Above all else it 
lacked definiteness ; it was touched by rhetoric. 
Champlain's auditors had been thrilled with deep 
emotion. They were for embarking at once with 
the Jesuits. Then they had faltered, and by the 
next day they had decided to depart without them. 
For another year, therefore, the fathers had remained 
at Notre Dame des Anges, studying the Huron 
language for future use, and caring meantime for the 
spiritual welfare of the half-hundred French residents 
of Quebec. 

The summer of 1634 once more saw the city given 
over to the visiting Hurons. The old persuasive 
palaver was repeated, and this time with more success. 
When the trading fair was over, Brebeuf, Daniel, and 



70 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

Davost set off with the savage fleet, each in a 
different canoe, facing a journey of nine hundred 
miles fraught with many perils, but with none so 
ominous as the sullen and menacing mood of their 
heathen conductors. 

Week after week they pressed toilfully up the St. 
Lawrence and Ottawa ; barefaoted they struggled 
over the rocky portages, with a pittance of pounded 
maize for their daily ration, and mother-earth for 
their nightly couch. Davost's guide robbed and 
abandoned him at an island in the Upper Ottawa. 
Daniel was likewise deserted ; but the giant Brebeuf 
yielded to no hardships, and surpassed even the 
seasoned savages in strength and endurance. On 
the shore of the Georgian Bay, however, his guide at 
length abandoned him. But Brebeuf had been here 
in a former year, and his instinctive woodcraft guided 
him twenty miles through the forest to the palisaded 
village of Ihonatiria. 

" Echom has come again," cried the inhabitants, as 
they recognised the towering figure of the Jesuit who 
had departed from them five years before ; and they 
opened again their lodges to the missionary. 

After days of anxious waiting, Brebeuf had the 
joy of seeing Daniel and Davost arrive at Ihonatiria. 
The hardships and dangers they had endured, and 
the indignities they had suffered from their brutal 
guides, were only outweighed by their zealous delight 



IV "AD MAJOREM DEI GLORIAM" 71 

in reaching at length the scene of their devoted 
labours. The H urons aided them in the construction 
of a log mission-house ; and when the fathers had 




MONUMENT TO THE FIRST CANADIAN MISSIONARY 



decorated the interior with highly-coloured pictures 
of the saints and the glittering regalia of the Church, 
the red men filled it to overflowing. A striking clock 
and a magnifying glass, however, were the chief objects 



72 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

of wonderment, and the credulous Indians regarded 
the priests as the workers of miracles. This awe and 
respect the fathers turned to good account, gathering 
the children into the mission-house for daily in- 
struction. With a mind also to the physical welfare 
of their flock, they succeeded in reconstructing the 
palisades and fort of the Huron village. 

Yet with all the outward respect in which the 
Jesuits were held, their doctrines made little or no 
impression upon the Indian mind. The adult Hu- 
rons had a superstitious fear of baptism, and shunned 
the sign of the cross as a spell. Under these diffi- 
culties the Jesuits laboured, saving stricken children 
from a dark hereafter by the furtive administration 
of the dreaded sacrament. 

With what boldness they dared to assume, Brebeuf 
and his companions condemned the infernal practices 
ofthe so-called medicine-men, whose accomplishments 
ranged from the curing of snake-bites to the casting 
out of devils. To them all diseases of the body 
called for much the same treatment, varied only in 
the proportion of vehemence allowed in their in- 
cantations and at medicine-feasts. The disgraceful 
orgies attending these " cures " led the priests to 
interfere : a policy which enraged the sorcerers of the 
tribe, and presently put the lives of the missionaries 
in jeopardy. 

The summer of 1635 was marked by a great 



IV "AD MAJOREM DEI GLORIAM" 73 

drought. The maize and beans withered in the 
sun ; and in spite of the hoarse invocations of the 
medicine-men and the fierce efforts of the tribal 
rain-maker the sky stayed cloudless. Thereupon the 
Jesuits were accused. The cross upon the mission- 
house had frightened the bird of thunder^ away 
from Ihonatiria. Such were the charges which the 
sorcerers brought against the Jesuits ; and the super- 
stitious Hurons believed that they were true. How- 
ever, a timely vow was made to St. Joseph, the chosen 
protector of the Hurons, and in answer to their ardent 
prayers the rain fell in welcome torrents — so Brebeuf 
writes — and calamity was averted for a time. 

Meanwhile the work of the Jesuits extended. 
With headquarters still at Ihonatiria, they made visits 
to the neighbouring villages ; and for the greater 
success of the mission, new priests were drawn from 
Quebec. By 1640 those labouring among the Hu- 
rons and the neutral nation further south num- 
bered thirteen. 

It_is not possible within the limits of a single 
chapter to portray the character and follow the 

1 The Indian belief regarding thunder was as follows: "It is a man in the 
form of a turkey-cock. The sky is his palace, and he remains in it when the 
air is clear. When the clouds begin to grumble, he descends to the earth to 
gather up snakes and other objects which the Indians call okies. The lightning 
flashes wherever he opens or closes his wings. If the storm is more violent 
than usual, it is because his young are with him and aiding in the noise as well as 
they can," — Relation des jfesuits, 1636. 



74 



OLD QUEBEC 



CHAP. 



fortunes of all those heroic souls, who gave up home 
and country and worldly ambition to bury themselves 
in the unknown wilds of the West, and to walk with 
their lives in their hands among the cannibal tribes of 




New France. The motto which Ignatius Loyola had 
adopted for his order was, "Ad Majorem Dei GIo- 
riam," and in their perilous missions its members prac- 
tised absolute obedience to quasi-military discipline. 
To name but four, Brebeuf, Lalement, Garnier, and 



IV "AD MAJOREM DEI GLORIAM" 75 

Jogues were all destined to tragic deaths, and the 
story of their martyrdom is one of the most sorrow- 
ful in the history of the land. 

The suffering caused by the pestilence of 1637 was 




LALEMENT 



much more severe than those periodical afflictions by 
which the Indians were visited. Virulent smallpox 
was a feature of the plague, and the pious offices of 
priests and the incantations of the medicine-men 
alike proved unavailing. Clearly, some black spell 
had been cast upon the nation. First it was ascribed 



76 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

to a serpent, then to a spotted frog, then to a demon 
in the muskets of the French. The Jesuits were 
accused of compassing death by magic. The striking 
clock, which aforetime had merely astonished them, 
was now an engine of calamity ; and the litanies 
floating out through the windows of the mission- 
house were fatal incantations. Yet the Indians were 
afraid to lay hands upon these dealers in death. Awe 
held them back from wreaking their sinister designs 
upon the fearless men who went as ever into the 
pestilential tepees, that through the mystic drop and 
sign they might rescue the poor victims from an 
eternity of woe. 

At length it became clear to the Jesuits that fear 
alone would not much longer stay the hatchets of the 
now hopeless Hurons. Daily they expected to meet 
a violent death, and a letter, still extant, drawn up 
by five priests in the form of a last testament, shows 
the unfaltering fortitude of men whose dearest ambi- 
tion was a martyr's death. The intervention of a 
squaw saved Du Peron from the tomahawk uplifted 
to brain him ; an unseen hand delivered Ragueneau ; 
Le Mercier and Brebeuf confounded their assailants 
with the courage of their demeanour ; and only Chau- 
mont suffered, being assaulted and severely wounded. 
Knowing, however, that their death had been finally 
decided upon, the Jesuits gave ^festin d' adieu — one 
of those farewell feasts which Huron custom enjoined 



IV "AD MAJOREM DEI GLORIAM" 77 

on those about to die ; and the courageous resignation 
of this band of martyrs filled even the tents of the 
ungodly with a superstitious awe. Once more the 
annihilating blow was averted ; and from this time 
forward the peril threatening the Jesuit mission came 
not from the Hurons themselves, but from their 
implacable enemies, the Iroquois. 

The year 1640 was drawing to a close when, after 
a few years' respite, the terrible war-whoop of the 
Five Nation Indians again rang through Canadian 
woods. Quebec was continually threatened by the 
Mohawks, whose highway of attack was the river 
Richelieu ; and the Hurons were assailed by the 
Western tribe of the Iroquois confederacy. The pesti- 
lence of 1637 had ruined Ihonatiria, and for greater 
security the Jesuits resolved upon a large central 
establishment, in lieu of small missions in the several 
Huron villages. They chose for a site the mouth of 
the river Wye, which empties into Matchedash Bay. 
Here, in 1639, they built the mission of Ste. Marie, 
In the extreme peril of Indian warfare, the Hurons 
fled thither for food and baptism ; and the hunger of 
three thousand neophytes and refugees soon put the 
fortified mission on short rations. 

Isaac Jogues and a score of Huron warriors were 
despatched to Quebec for food and clothing. They 
reached the city in safety, although the St. Lawrence 
was closely beset by hostile Iroquois. Returning in 



78 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

twelve canoes laden with necessaries for the destitute 
Ste. Marie, Father Jogues and his companions fell 
into the hands of a Mohawk war-party. Some were 
killed on the spot, and the others were carried up 
the Richelieu and across Lake Champlain to a more 
awful fate. First they were made to run a gauntlet 
of Mohawk war-clubs ; then they were placed upon 
a scaffold, where the women lacerated them with 
knives and clam-shells, and the children applied fire- 
brands to their naked bodies. This torture was 
repeated in each of the three Mohawk villages. 
Goupil, a lay brother, was soon afterwards murdered, 
and Jogues lived the life of a slave until some Dutch 
settlers on the Hudson effected his ransom and put 
him on board a ship bound for France. 

In the following year, however, Jogues came back 
to Quebec, and on behalf of the suffering city he 
undertook to negotiate a peace with the Mohawks. 
Armed with gifts and belts of wampum, he set out 
fearlessly to face his former tormentors. For a short 
time the wampum saved him, but he was soon obliged 
to return to Quebec. The French, however, were 
determined to win the Iroquois, politically and 
religiously, and no danger was great enough to check 
them. Accordingly, in the late summer of 1646, 
Jogues was again despatched to the post which by 
this time had come to be known as the Mission of 
the Martyrs ; and. at last, on the 1 8th of October, he 



IV "AD MAJOREM DEI GLORIAM" 79 

was foully murdered in the lodge of a Mohawk 
chief. 

In the preceding winter Anne de Noue, a Jesuit 
of noble descent and frail physique, set off from 
Quebec to minister to the garrison at Fort Richelieu. 
In spite of his sixty-three years, he did not shrink 
from the perils of frost and snow which lay before 
him. On his snow-shoes and with a few days' pro- 
visions he set forth upon the path of sacrifice. A 
blizzard overtook him on the frozen river, he lost 
his way, and some days later his martyred body was 
discovered kneeling in the snow. 

Meanwhile the dangers farther west were not 
decreasing. Iroquois attacks and Huron reprisals 
were ever threatening the Jesuit missions, and the 
last great blow was soon to fall. In the summer 
of 1648 an Iroquois war-party crept up to the 
gates of St. Joseph. Most of the warriors had 
gone to Quebec, but the palisade still contained 
Father Daniel and close upon a thousand women 
and children and old men. An early Mass had 
crowded the chapel, and the priest, clothed in full 
vestments, was exhorting the neophytes to be strong 
in the faith, when the dreaded war-cry rang through 
the village. The panic-stricken Hurons sought in 
vain to save themselves from stark slaughter, but 
Daniel met his death calmly at the door of his burning 
church. Seven hundred prisoners were taken, and 



8o OLD QUEBEC chap. 

the retiring Iroquois left of St. Joseph only a heap 
of ruins. 

The destruction of the mission was, however, but 
the prelude to the final extinction of the Huron nation. 
Terror-stricken they awaited the blow, in spite of the 
efforts of the Jesuits to rouse them to strong defence. 
All winter a formidable war-party of the Mohawks 
and Senecas roved through the Huron woods, and in 
early spring they fell upon St. Ignace and St. Louis. 
The first village was burned with no show of resistance, 
and its four hundred inhabitants were either toma- 
hawked or kept for torture. Only three escaped, and 
these fled to St. Louis, about a league away. Here 
Brebeuf and Lalement endeavoured to rally the 
panic-stricken villagers. By sunrise the invaders 
were upon them. Brought to bay, the Hurons 
fought bravely. The giant Brebeuf stood in the 
breach and cheered them by his hopeful courage. 
Twice the Iroquois fell back, but at their third 
advance drove in the shattered paHsade. Those of 
the Hurons who still lived were made prisoners ; 
the two Jesuits were bound together, and the 
clustering cabins of St. Louis were given to the 
flames. 

Returning to the ruins of St. Ignace, the Iroquois 
made preparations for the despatch of their prisoners. 
Brebeuf and Lalement were stricken to the soul by 
the carnival of blood ; yet their own martyrdom 



IV "AD MAJOREM DEI GLORIAM " 8i 

was to be made the most cruel of all. Brebeuf was 
first bound to a stake, all the while continuing 
to speak words of comfort to his fellow-captives. 
Enraged by this behaviour, the Iroquois tore away 
his lower lip and thrust a hot iron into his throat. 
No sound or sign of pain escaped the tortured 
priest. Then Lalement was also led out, that each 
might witness the other's pangs. Strips of bark 
smeared with pitch enveloped the naked body of 
Lalement, and after making him fast to a stake 
they set the bark on fire. Round Brebeuf's neck 
a collar of red-hot hatchets was hung; and in 
mockery of baptism the savages poured kettles of 
scalding water upon the heads of both. Brebeuf 
was scalped, his tormentors drinking the blood, thus 
to endow themselves with his unflinching courage. 
After four hours the noblest Jesuit of all was 
dead ; but Lalement was kept alive for seventeen 
hours, until a pitiful hatchet ended his voiceless 
misery. So died two men whose memory has 
ennobled the history of the land for which they 
laboured, and adds to the fame and honour of their 
race. 

At Ste. Marie, Bressani, Ragueneau, and their 
French companions awaited the Iroquois onslaught. 
But the fugitive Hurons, gathering for a last 
resistance, had checked the Iroquois' further 
advance, and after a fierce battle the latter 



82 OLD QUEBEC 



CHAP. 



withdrew southward with an army of wretched 
captives. 

That day the Hurons as a nation ceased to exist. 
Abandoning their remaining villages, they dispersed 
in small bands to roam northward and eastward, 
while a few established themselves at Isle St, Joseph, 
thinking to protect themselves here from their 
inveterate foes. As for the Jesuits, Garnier and 
Chabanel still laboured among the Tobacco nation 
farther to the south ; but they too became the 
victims of the Iroquois before this fatal year was 
over. 

Famine and the rigours of winter presently worked 
sad havoc upon the little band to whom Ragueneau 
now ministered at Isle St. Joseph, and in the spring 
renewed attacks of the Iroquois led the Hurons to 
decide upon a remarkable enterprise. This was to 
migrate to Quebec and take refuge under the guns 
of Fort St. Louis. 

On the loth of June all was ready for the 
departure, the sorrowing Hurons bidding good-bye 
to the home of their fathers, and the Jesuits to the 
country consecrated by the blood of their martyrs. 
Proceeding by the Georgian Bay, Lake Nipissing, 
the Ottawa and the St. Lawrence, the fleet of canoes 
reached Quebec before the end of July, 1650. And 
while Quebec was ready to open her gates to the 
sorrowful remnant of a once great nation, her own 



IV "AD MAJOREM DEI GLORIAM" 83 

position was sorely beset. Food was scarce and 
lodgings scarcer in the palisaded city. However, 
the Ursulines and the nuns of the Hospital made 
every effort to provide shelter for the exiled race, 
and the Jesuits themselves bore the chief burden 
of their converts. In the following year, 1651, 
four hundred more Hurons found their way to 
Quebec, and together they established a settlement 
on the Island of Orleans. Here, in sight of the 
protecting ramparts of the city, this decimated people 
lived tor a time secure. But the Iroquois were set 
upon nothing less than their annihilation, and in 1656 
they made a descent upon the quiet island and car- 
ried off many captives. The terrified Hurons were 
then removed to the city itself and lodged in a square 
enclosure almost adjoining Fort St. Louis. A map 
of 1660 places the " Fort des Sauvages " on the site 
of the present Place d'Armes. Here they dwelt for 
about ten years in the same uncertain security enjoyed 
by Quebec itself. Then they removed to Ste. Foye, 
four miles west of the city, and again changing their 
abode six years later, they founded the village of 
Old Lorette. 

Standing to-day on Dufferin Terrace, the observer 
sees spread beneath him the picturesque Cote de 
Beaupre, a graceful upland losing itself in the 
Laurentian foot-hills. A shining spire in the middle 
distance arrests the eye. It marks the village of 



84 OLD QUEBEC chap, iv 

Ancient Lorette, a nine miles' drive from Quebec, 
where a pitiful moiety of Canada's noblest Indian 
tribe ekes out an existence by the making of baskets 
and beaded moccasins, and by that nonchalant culture 
of the soil which still marks the primitive man. 



CHAPTER V 



ROYAL GOVERNMENT 



In the year 1660 the French population of Quebec 
numbered something over six hundred. The fur 
company continued to drive a fair trade in peltries, 
but the prosperity of the city itself was woefully re- 
tarded by the constant menace of the Iroquois. The 
Baron d'Avaugour held the office of Governor, and 
his strong sense of military authority brought him 
into conflict with the Church, by this time become 
the real controller of the State. This revered power 
was still further to impose its authority and influence 
through and by the person of Fran9ois-Xavier Laval, 
the first Bishop of Canada, a man of as great ability 
as piety, an ecclesiastical statesman trained in the 
school of Mazarin. His career gives significance to 
a later epoch. 

The fur traders had always found brandy their 
most attractive commodity in dealing with the thirsty 
savage ; and Pere Lalement gives a sad picture of 
the misery entailed. " They have brought them- 

85 



86 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

selves to nakedness," he writes, " and their families 
to beggary. They have even gone so far as to sell 
their children to procure the means of satisfying their 
raging passion. I cannot describe the evils caused by 
these disorders to the infant Church. My ink is not 
black enough to paint them in proper colours. It 
would require the gall of the dragon to express the 
bitterness we have experienced from them. It may 
suffice to say that we lose in one month the fruits of 
the toil and labour of thirty years." Accordingly, the 
Church now decided to prohibit it entirely, and a law 
was passed making it a capital offence. Two men 
paid the extreme penalty ; and a woman also was 
condemned to the scaffold. When, however, the 
clergy interfered to save her, the rigorous but con- 
sistent D'Avaugour declared he would punish no 
more breaches of this law. Brandy now flowed like 
water, and the thunder of the pulpit was henceforth 
disregarded. Exasperated by this treatment, the 
priests carried their grievance to the Louvre, where 
they received little satisfaction. 

In the same year a deputy of another sort 
journeyed to France. Pierre Boucher's mission was 
to lay before the King the desperate condition of 
the colony, particularly in the matter of defence. 
Louis XIV. had but recently ascended the throne 
of the Bourbons, and Richelieu and Mazarin had 
been in turn succeeded by Colbert as the royal 



ROYAL GOVERNMENT 



87 



adviser. The envoy from Quebec was presently 
received at the Court, and the tale of suffering and 
neglect which he unfolded convinced Colbert that 
the Company of One Hundred Associates was 
scandalously evading the obligations imposed by 




its charter. Accordingly, in 1663, a royal edict 
went forth revoking its powers and privileges. This 
was a turning-point in the history of New France ; 
for although the company founded by Richelieu was 
succeeded by an unwieldy corporation of Colbert's 



88 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

design, from this time forward the Crown itself took 
over the control of the distant colony. 

The Grand Monarch, indeed, took a finely com- 
prehensive view of his position. He held himself 
in every sense the father of his people, and by a 
nice condescension the citizens of Quebec were in- 
cluded in the patriarchal fold. The far-away city 
on the borders of the world was no longer to be 
abandoned to the avariciovis whims of a trading 
company : the King himself would now take it 
under his royal care. Daniel de Remy, Sieur de 
Courcelles, was appointed Governor, with Jean 
Baptiste Talon as Intendant ; and the valorous 
Marquis de Tracy was commissioned to New France 
as the King's personal representative, with instruc- 
tions to settle the domestic friction of the colony, 
and to deal a fatal blow to the Iroquois, the " scourge 
of Canada." 

On the 30th of June, 1665, De Tracy's 
caravels cast anchor in the basin of Quebec, the 
ships of De Courcelles and the Intendant being still 
at sea. The cannon of Fort St. Louis boomed 
a welcome down the gorge of the St. Lawrence, 
while the eager burghers crowded the ramparts and 
prepared to welcome the most distinguished company 
in the most brilliant pageant yet seen upon the soil 
of New France. 



V ROYAL GOVERNMENT 89 

The royal pennant flew at the flag-ship's mast- 
head, and the decks were thronged with the brilhant 
uniforms of the regiment of Carignan-Salieres, whom 
the King had sent to destroy the enemies of New 
France. In the midst stood the stately Marquis, 
gorgeous in viceregal robes and attended by a suite 
of nobles and gallants from the court of Fontaine- 
bleau. The mysteries and wonders of the West 
had stirred the romantic minds of the volatile 
courtiers, and the mission to convert New France 
to the Catholic faith gave to De Tracy's expedition 
the complexion of a mediaeval crusade. 

Presently the gaily-decked pinnace drew in to 
the landing-stage of the Cul-de-sac, where stood the 
notables of the New World city. Bishop Laval in 
pontificals, surrounded by the priests of his diocese, 
awaited the royal envoy at the top of Mountain Hill, 
which was then the only practicable highway between 
the Lower and the Upper Town. To-day the 
visitor landing at the quay reaches the terrace by the 
same route ; but the present graceful declivity of 
Mountain Hill is little like the tortuous pathway of 
corduroy by which De Tracy and his glittering retinue 
made their toilsome way to the public square by the 
Jesuits' College. First came a company of guards in 
the royal livery, then four pages and six valets, and 
by the side of the King's Lieutenant-General, resplen- 
dent in gold lace and gay ribbons, walked the young 



go OLD QUEBEC chap. 

nobles of his train. The cathedral bells pealed forth 
joyously, and the Te Deum began a day of public 
rejoicing. 

The vessels bearing the new Governor and In- 
tendant, however, suffered the most hapless violence. 
Talon's ship was 117 days at sea, and De Courcelles' 
was hardly more fortunate ; but at length they, too, 
cast anchor beneath the rocky battlement, and Quebec 
was now flooded with soldiers of the regiment of 
Carignan-Salieres. These bronzed veterans of Savoy 
came to New France fresh from the Turkish wars, 
and the sight of their plumed helmets and leathern 
bandoleers, as they marched through the narrow 
streets, promised the colonists a speedy riddance of 
their enemies. The health of Louis XIV. was no- 
where in his broad dominions drunk more heartily 
than in Quebec. 

At the close of the year extensive preparations 
were made for the chastisement of the Iroquois. 
De Courcelles had determined upon a stroke of 
almost foolhardy boldness : to march over the snow 
into the country of the Mohawks, a distance of three 
hundred leagues. Thick ice had formed on the St. 
Lawrence, and on the 9th of January the audacious 
Governor set off at the head of his fiery columns. 

OfScers and men alike shared the burdens of 
transport, but the soldiers of Europe were em- 
barrassed by the unaccustomed snow-shoes which 



V ROYAL GOVERNMENT 91 

the deep snow forced them to use. Some got 
no farther than Three Rivers, but the more hardy 
held their way up the valley of the Richelieu to 
Lake Champlain and across the Hudson. An 
unfortunate circumstance, however, had deprived 
them of guides, and all efforts to find and sur- 
prise the Mohawk towns proved unsuccessful. 
Wandering by mistake beyond Saratoga Lake, they 
came near to the Dutch village of Corker,^ where, 
half-frozen and half-starved, they bivouacked in 
the neighbouring woods. A few days later envoys 
appeared from Albany to demand why the French 
had invaded the territories of the Duke of York ; 
and then, for the first time, De Courcelles learned that 
the New Netherlands had passed into English hands. 

De Courcelles' explanation was courteously ac- 
cepted, and having been supplied with provisions, 
he prepared to retrace his steps to Quebec. His 
intended victims, the Mohawks, harassed the retreat, 
killing and taking prisoners ; while sixty of his men 
perished from hunger and exposure before he came 
in sight of the St. Lawrence, and many more fell 
before he reached Quebec. 

In spite of apparent failure, however, this expedi- 
tion, like that undertaken by Daulac, had a 'good 
effect upon the Iroquois, who had come to regard 
themselves as too remote for French assault. 

1 Now Schenectady. 



92 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

They now sent embassies to Quebec seeking a 
treaty of peace, an idea to which, naturally, the 
French were not opposed. But the occasion was 
too much for Iroquois malice and lust of blood ; 
for even whilst terms were under discussion, a band 
of French hunters was set upon by the Mohawks. 
The Marquis de Tracy, now thoroughly aroused to 
the sufferings of his countrymen, determined to 
strike a sudden and crushing blow. The Iroquois 
deputies, still in Quebec praying for peace, were 
seized and imprisoned, and a formidable force once 
more prepared to invade the country of the Five 
Nations. 

It was in early October, 1666, that De Tracy 
and De Courcelles left Quebec at the head of thirteen 
hundred men. Of these, six hundred were regulars 
of Carignan-Salieres, an equal number were irregulars 
from Quebec, under command of Repentigny, and 
a hundred Indian scouts from the missions ranged 
the woods. A hundred rugged colonists, commanded 
by the brave Charles le Moyne, joined the advancing 
column at Montreal. With confidence this imposing 
force swept on to annihilate the enemies of New 
France. 

At. the mysterious sound of the French drum- 
beat the Mohawks of the first village fled in terror, 
and the invaders pressed on to the second, third, 
and fourth towns, to find them also deserted. 



V ROYAL GOVERNMENT ^^ 

At Andaraque, their largest village, the Mohawks 
prepared to make a final stand ; but the first appear- 
ance of the French army and the roll of their " devil- 
drums " as they emerged from the forest put the 
savages to instant flight. Andaraque, the last native 
stronghold, being thus abandoned, with its stores of 
corn and winter supplies, the French took what pro- 
visions they needed for their return journey, set fire 
to the town, and having planted on the site a white 
cross in the name of the King, they turned their 
faces homeward. The remaining Indian villages 
were given to the flames, and although the Mohawks 
had escaped with their lives, the French were 
content to leave them to the severities of coming 
winter. 

This policy was successful, for by the time spring 
came again, not only the Mohawks, but their four 
confederate nations, were anxious to make a sincere 
peace with the avenging soldiers of New France. 
Hostages were exchanged, several representative 
chiefs remaining in Quebec. The Jesuits again under- 
took the Mission of the Martyrs, desiring both to win 
the savages into the fold of the Church and at the 
same time to wean the Iroquois from their friendliness 
towards the colonies of England, with whom the 
French were soon to enter into deadly conflict for 
the mastery of the North American continent. 

The Marquis de Tracy, having in due time fulfilled 



94 OLD QUEBEC chap, v 

the King's commission, embarked for France, and 
with him departed the glittering entourage which for 
almost two years had cast upon the court of Quebec 
some reflection of the glories of Versailles. The 
regiment of Carignan-Salieres was disbanded, but its 
ofiicers, for the most part, elected to remain in Canada 
and accept the gift of seigneuries which the King 
distributed on conditions of fealty and homage. The 
soldiers settled on the fiefs as censitaires, and became 
the retainers of the seigneurs. The feudal system, 
with all its antique forms, was thus imported into 
French Canada, further to cripple her progress in 
the race with the English colonies, where the indi- 
vidual was allowed to develop freely, evolving his 
own laws, and creating conditions best suited to his 
new estate. Talon became the royal instrument of 
a system which had its beginning and end in the 
maintenance of kingly authority. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE NOBLESSE AND THE PEOPLE 

The Canadian seigneur held his lands of the King, 
and the habitants^ or cultivators of the soil, held theirs 
of the seigneur upon the performance of specific duties 
and the payment of cens et rente. These tributes 
varied curiously in kind and amount ; and on St. 
Martin's Day, when the censitaires commonly liqui- 
dated the obligations of their tenure, the seigneurie 
presented an animated scene. Here were gathered 
all the tenants, bearing wheat, eggs, and live capons 
to pay for their long narrow farms, at a rate ranging 
from four to sixteen francs. 

The annual delivery of his handful of sous and 
his bundle of produce did not, however, complete 
the obligations of the censitaire. Throughout the 
year he must grind his grain at the seigneur's mill, 
paying one bushel in every fourteen for the service, 
bake his bread in the seigneur's oven, work for him 
one or two days in the year, and forfeit one fish in 
every eleven to the lord of the manor. Military 

95 



96 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

service, however, was no part of the habitant's duty 
as a tenant; for the judicious Colbert, jealous always 
for the power of the monarchy, had clipped this 
ancient feature from Canadian feudalism, and given 
absolute military control of the country to the 
Governor at Quebec. The seigneur's judicial powers 
varied according to the importance of his fief Barons 
were empowered to erect gallows and pillories, but 
the ordinary judicial powers of a Canadian seigneur 
were confined to Middle and Low justice, which 
comprehended only minor offences. 

The solicitous interest of Louis XIV. in the affairs 
of New France promised much for the country's 
prosperity ; and every ship sailing to the St. Lawrence 
carried out a fresh batch of emigrants. For all of 
these the King paid out of his own pocket, and it 
cost him a pretty penny to respond to Intendant 
Talon's persistent appeals for more settlers. Agencies 
were established at several points in France to recruit 
colonists, and grants of money and land were held 
out as inducements to new settlers. In this way 
the King and Colbert managed to send out about 
three hundred men each year. But, as might be 
expected of emigration state-aided and scarcely 
voluntary, Quebec became a city of men chiefly, 
there being few women besides cloistered nuns. 
There had always been a demand for wives, but now 
that the soldiers and officers of the Carignan-Salieres 



VI NOBLESSE AND THE PEOPLE 97 

had elected to remain in the country, the scarcity of 
women induced a matrimonial famine. 

Talon speedily apprised Colbert of the situation, 
and the most comely inmates of the refuge hospitals 
of Paris and Lyons were summoned to fill this 
void. In 1665 one hundred of the " King's girls" 
arrived in Quebec, almost instantly to be provided 
with partners ; and although the supply was doubled 
in the following year, it yet remained below the 
conjugal demand. 

To supply the needs of the seigneurs also became 
a real problem. Talon, with grim humour, demanded 
a consignment of young ladies; and in 1667 he was 
able to announce as follows : "They send us eighty- 
four girls from Dieppe and twenty-five from Rochelle ; 
among them are fifteen or twenty of pretty good 
birth ; several of them are really demoiselles^ and 
tolerably well brought up." Amusing evidence, 
however, of the exceeding delicacy of such a market 
is found in a letter, in which the match-making 
Intendant alludes to the supply of the year 1670. 
" It is not expedient," he ungallantly writes to Colbert, 
" to send more demoiselles. I have had this year 
fifteen of them instead of the four I asked for." 

La Hontan, writing a few years later, cannot 
refrain from exercising keen but slanderous wit at 
the expense of these fair cargoes from Quebec so 
gladly received. His description, albeit scandalous, 



98 OLD QUEBFX chap. 

is amusing : " After the regiment of Carrigan was 
disbanded, ships were sent out freighted with girls of 
indifferent virtue, under the direction of a few pious 
old duennas, who divided them into three classes. 
These vestals were, so to speak, piled one on the 
other in three different halls, where the bridegrooms 
chose their brides as a butcher chooses his sheep out 
of the midst of the flock. There was wherewith to 
content the most fantastical in these three harems; 
for here were to be seen the tall and the short, the 
blond and the brown, the plump and the lean ; every- 
body, in short, found a shoe to fit him. At the end 
of a fortnight not one was left. I am told that the 
plumpest were taken first, because it was thought 
that, being less active, they were more likely to keep 
at home, and that they could resist the winter cold 
better. Those who wanted a wife applied to the 
directresses, to whom they were obliged to make 
known their possessions and means of livelihood 
before taking from one of the three classes the girl 
whom they found most to their liking. The marriage 
was concluded forthwith, with the help of a priest 
and notary, and the next day the Governor caused 
the couple to be presented with an ox, a cow, a pair 
of swine, a pair of fowls, two barrels of salted meat, 
and eleven crowns in money." 

On their part the girls were permitted to reject 
any suitor who displeased them ; and at these annual 



VI NOBLESSE AND THE PEOPLE 99 

marriage fairs the contest for favour was keen on both 
sides. But the paternaHsm of the Grand Monarch 
went even farther than the mere enlistment of wives 
for the colonists. Bounties were offered on early 
marriages ; and the maid who married before she was 
sixteen received the " King's gift " of twenty livres, 
in addition to her ordinary dowry. Bachelors who 
refused to marry were rendered as uncomfortable as 
possible, and were taxed for their abstinence or 
timidity. Children were likewise made a good asset, 
and blessed was the man whose house was full of 
them. Thus runs an edict of the time: "... In 
future all inhabitants of the said country of Canada 
who shall have living children to the number of ten, 
born in lawful wedlock, not being priests, maids, or 
nuns, shall each be paid out of the moneys sent by 
His Majesty to the said country a pension of three 
hundred livres a year, and those who shall have twelve 
children, a pension of four hundred livres, and that, 
to this effect, they shall be required to declare the 
number of their children every year in the months 
of June and July to the Intendant of justice, police, 
and finance, established in the said country, who, 
having verified the same, shall order the payment of 
said pensions, one-half in cash, and the other half at 
the end of each year." 

It was not by accident but by design that an 
aristocratic class was created in French Canada. The 

L cfC. 



loo OLD QUEBEC chap. 

perpetual contrast between the English and the French 
systems of colonisation was but the difference between 
natural evolution and artificial construction. The 
Canadian aristocracy was a consistent detail of the 
latter and in keeping with Louis' ambitious scheme 
of personal government. The caste system grafted 
upon the stem of the colonial plant was a picturesque 
adornment to the life of Quebec, but a doubtful 
experiment from any other point of view, as time 
proved. 

For the most part the Canadian noblesse were 
either officers of the disbanded Carignan-Salieres 
regiment, or gentilhommes who had come to the New 
World in search of adventure or gain. In both cases 
they were unsuited to the hard and restrictive condi- 
tions of a rugged country. The soldiers steadfastly 
refused to beat their swords into ploughshares or their 
spears into pruning-hooks, and most of them accepted 
a state not far removed from actual want, rather than 
stain their martial hands with manual labour. The 
leisured class thus became the starving class, and the 
King's annual subsidies alone kept these families from 
destitution. Many of them were also in receipt of the 
bounties granted to large families — an ineffective re- 
source, inasmuch as hungry children but consumed the 
supply and renewed the demand. Disdaining work 
of any sort, the Canadian gentilhomme yet gave him- 
self airs that were in amusing contrast to his shabby 



VI NOBLESSE AND THE PEOPLE loi 

coat and empty stomach. The world, he held, owed 
him a living without the labour of his hands, and to 
him " the world" was Louis the perpetual almsgiver. 

The official correspondence of the period describes 
in some detail the pangs of these ill-conditioned 
gentry. " Two days ago," writes the Governor of 
Quebec in 1686, "Monsieur de Saint-Ours, a 
gentleman of Dauphiny, came to me to ask leave to 
go back to France in search of bread. He says that 
he will put his ten children in charge of any one who 
will give them a living, and that he himself will go 
into the army again. His wife and he are in despair ; 
and yet they do what they can. I have seen two of 
his girls reaping grain and holding the plough. 
Other families are in the same condition. They 
come to me with tears in their eyes. All our married 
officers are beggars ; and I entreat you to send them 
aid. There is need that the King should provide 
support for their children, or else they will be tempted 
to go over to the English." 

Nor was this impecunious noblesse merely a passive 
burden to New France, for the dignified hardships of 
their estate soon bred active conditions equally dis- 
tressing to those in authority. Having no induce- 
ment to remain peacefully at home, the sons of 
the seigneurs took to the woods, often enticing 
the more unsettled of their own habitants to follow 
them thither to a life of unbridled freedom and 



I02 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

outlawry. Reckless bushrangers, they carried on an 
ilHcit trade with the Indians, diverting peltries from 
the fur company at Quebec, and demoralising the 
savage proselytes of the missions. In this unfortunate 
way the gentilhomme and his children compromised 
with labour and managed to keep body and soul 
together. 

Harsh edict and cruel ordinance were repeatedly 
launched against the practices of these well-bred 
offenders, but the ready covert of the forest made 
the evasion of the King's justice an easy matter. 
Moreover, the Church, while it suffered much from 
such children, did not venture to reprove too strongly 
their flagrant excesses, lest they should thenceforth 
dispense altogether with her sacraments ; for a fur- 
tive life in the wild woods did not prevent the super- 
stitious coureurs de bois from occasionally coming to 
confession or to Mass. 

A royal edict ordered that any person going into 
the woods without a license should be whipped and 
branded for the first offence, and sent for life to the 
galleys for the second ; while a third offence was 
punishable by death. The whole criminal code of 
Quebec was, indeed, of a piece with this ; and an 
obvious feature was the quasi-religious character of 
most of the offences. The edict against blasphemy 
read as follows : " . . . All persons convicted of 
profane swearing or blaspheming the name of God, 



VI NOBLESSE AND THE PEOPLE 103 

the most Holy Virgin, His Mother, or the Saints, 
shall be condemned for the first offence to a pecuniary 
fine according to their possessions and the great- 
ness and enormity of the oath and blasphemy ; 
and if those thus punished repeat the said oaths, then 
for the second, third, and fourth time they shall be 
condemned to a double, triple, and quadruple fine ; 




\.CE ( 



OLD BISHOP S PALACE (AT THE TOP OF MOUNTAIN 



hill) 



and for the fifth time they shall be set in the pillory 
on Sunday or other festival days, there to remain 
from eight in the morning till one in the afternoon, 
exposed to all sorts of opprobrium and abuse, and 
be condemned besides to a heavy fine ; and for the 
sixth time they shall be led to the pillory, and there 
have the upper lip cut with a hot iron ; and for the 
seventh time they shall be led to the pillory and 



I04 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

have the lower lip cut ; and if, by reason of obstinacy 
and inveterate bad habit, they continue after all these 
punishments to utter the said oaths and blasphemies, 
it is our will and command that they have the tongue 
completely cut out, so that thereafter they cannot 
utter them again." ^ 

A citizen who had the temerity to eat meat during 
Lent without priestly permission was condemned to 
be tied three hours to the public stake, then led to 
the door of the church, there on his knees to ask 
pardon of God and the King. For approving of 
the execution of Charles L by his English sub- 
jects, one Paul Dupuy was held to have libelled the 
monarchy and to have encouraged sedition. He was 
condemned to be dragged from prison by the public 
executioner, led in his shirt, with a rope about his 
neck and a torch in his hand, to the gate of the fort, 
there to beg pardon of the King ; thence down 
Mountain Hill to the pillory of Lower Town to be 
branded on the cheek with a fleur-de-lis, and set in 
the stocks. Poor Dupuy's crime was not yet expi- 
ated, for, according to the remainder of the sentence, 
he was to be " led back to prison and put in irons 
till the information against him shall be completed." " 
Convicts and felons were sometimes tortured before 
being strangled. The execution usually took place 

' Edit du Roy contre lei jfureurs et Blaspbcmateun, 1666. 
2 yugements et Deliberations du Conseil Supcrieur. 



VI NOBLESSE AND THE PEOPLE 105 

at But tes-a-N even ^ a little hillock on the Plains of 
Abraham, — afterwards to become more justly cele- 
brated and less notorious, — and the dead body, 
enclosed in an iron cage, was left hanging for months 
at the top of Cape Diamond, a terror to children and 
a gruesome warning to evildoers. 




NEW PALACE GATE 



The people of Quebec were regularly apprised of 
the laws under which they lived. On Sundays after 
Mass the ordinances of the Intendant were read at 
the doors of the churches. These related to any 
number of subjects — regulations of inns and mar- 
kets, poaching, sale of brandy, pew-rents, stray hogs, 
mad dogs, tithes, domestic servants, quarrelling in 



io6 OLD QUEBEC chap, vi 

church, fast driving, the careful observance of feast 
days, and so on. 

Law-breakers were tried by the Superior Council, 
which met for that purpose every Monday morning 
in the ante-chamber of the Governor's apartment at 
Fort St. Louis. The Governor himself presided at 
the Round Table, the bar of justice ; on his right 
sat the bishop, and on his left the Intendant, the 
councillors sitting in order of appointment. Such 
at least was the venue until about 1684, when the 
old brewery which Talon had built in Lower Town 
on the bank of the river St. Charles was trans- 
formed into a Palais de Justice. The altered 
structure served also as a residence for the King's 
judicial proxy, and was commonly known as the 
Palace of the Intendant.^ It was an imposing mix- 
ture of timber and masonry, and at the close of the 
seventeenth century was the most considerable build- 
ing in Quebec. While lacking the glorious site of 
the Castle of St. Louis, in point of interior decoration 
it far eclipsed this chateau of the Governor. 

The present dilapidated tenements clustering about 
the foot of Palace Hill can, of course, give no idea 
of the natural position of the ancient Palais de V In- 
tendant. La Potherie, who visited Quebec in 1698, 
and Charlevoix, who writes in 1720, describe this 
district as the most beautiful in the city. Instead 

1 The declivity above its site is still known as Palace Hill. 



cH.vi NOBLESSE AND THE PEOPLE 109 

of the crowded quays of to-day there was a terraced 
lawn bordered with flower gardens ; and where now 
the winches creak and rattle, and the railway engines 
hiss and scream, birds sang among willow-trees, 
and the Angelus echoed through a quiet woodland. 
Across the St. Charles lay the well-ordered grounds 
of the Jesuit monastery, and farther to the west the 
lonely spire of the General Hospital peeped through 
the ancient trees. 

Such were the pleasing environs of the block of 
buildings which went by the name of Le Palais. In 
form it was almost a square, each side measuring 
about one hundred and twenty feet. An arched 
gateway, facing the sheer cliff, led into a large court- 
yard in which were situated the entrances to the 
Intendant's residence, the Court of Justice, the 
King's stores, and the prison. Soon it was also to 
be the site of La Friponne^ the scene of the ribald 
revels of Bigot. 



CHAPTER VII 

FRONTENAC AND LA SALLE 

The picturesque figure of Count Frontenac now 
enters upon the stage of Canadian history. Broken 
in health, De Courcelles had asked to be recalled ; 
and ominous signs of Iroquois hostility showed the 
need of a strong man for the dangerous post of 
governor. This strong man was Frontenac, whose 
courageous and vigorous administration in a period 
of Sturm und Drang has induced Goldwin Smith to 
call him "the Clive of Quebec." 

Born in 1620, of ancient Basque family, he was 
the son of a distinguished member of the household 
of Louis XIII., the King himself being the child's 
godfather. Frontenac's youthful passion was to be 
a soldier, and at the early age of fifteen he went 
to the war in Holland to serve under the Prince 
of Orange. Within the next few years he took a 
distinguished part in the sieges of Hesdin, Arras, 
Aire, Callioure, and Perpignan. At twenty-three 
he commanded a Norman regiment in the Italian 



CANADA 

'' and the 

n-^>pigon NORTH AMERICAN CO] 
1680- 1782. 




So° l,ciii),'-iUiclc West 75° of ( 




Walker &'Cuckerellsc. 



CH. VII FRONTENAC AND LA SALLE 1 1 1 

wars, and at twenty-six he was raised to the rank of 
Marechal de Camp. This was wonderful progress 
in the profession of war, even in an age when war 
was the sport of kings and soldiers fought for the 
mere love of fighting. Frontenac at least was one 
of these devotees, and when, in 1669, a Venetian 
embassy came to France to beg for a general to aid 
them against the Turks in Candia, the great Turenne 
selected him for this honourable duty. 

Returning from the campaign in Candia with 
increased honour and distinction, Frontenac was ap- 
pointed Governor of New France in 1672. The 
text of the royal commission indicates the extent of 
the activities which Frontenac had crowded into a 
life of fifty-two years, giving him his full title as : 
" Louis de Buade, Comte de Palluau et Frontenac^ 
Seigneur de Vlsle Savary, Mestre de camp du regiment 
de Normandie^ Marechal de camp dans les armees du 
Roy, et Gouverneur et Lieutenant-General en Canada, 
Acadia, Isle Terreneuve, et autre pays de la France 
septentrionale. ..." 

There appear, however, to have been reasons 
other than his eminence which led to the New 
World appointment of Frontenac. Far back, in 
1646, he had contracted an unfortunate marriage. 
The dashing brigadier-general of twenty-eight had 
won the immature affections of Anne de la Grange- 
Trianon, a maid of sixteen. Her father's opposition 



112 OLD QUEBEC ch. vii 

to the match made it necessary for the lovers to re- 
sort surreptitiously to the little Church of St. Pierre 
aux Boeufs, which had the privilege of uniting 
couples without the consent of their parents. But 
Frontenac and his bride were ill-mated. Both were 
possessed of imperious tempers and wayward minds. 
For a time they held together, then suddenly they 
separated — Frontenac to find a soothing excitement 
in the clash of arms, and the precocious Comtesse 
to divert herself in the brilliant salons of Mademoi- 
selle de Montpensier, the grand-daughter of Henry 
of Navarre. 

The memoirs of the Due de Saint-Simon allude 
with a humorous sympathy to Frontenac's appoint- 
ment : " He was a man of excellent parts " — writes 
this garrulous chronicler — " living much in society, 
and completely ruined. He found it hard to bear 
the imperious temper of his wife ; and he was given 
the government of Canada to deliver him from 
her, and afford him some means of living." A 
more scandalous report of the motive which sent 
Frontenac to Quebec is to be found in a whim- 
sical ditty which gained quiet currency in the 
Louvre — 

"Je suis ravi que le roi, notre sire, 
Aime la Mo^tespan; 
Moi, Frontenac, je mc creve de rire, 
Sachant ce qui lui pend ; 




FRONTENAC 



CH. VII FRONTENAC AND LA SALLE 1 1 5 

Et je dirai, sans etre des plus bestes, 
Tu n'as que mon reste, 

Roi, 
Tu n'as que mon reste." 

Be these things as they may, Frontenac came on 
the scene of his new dominion with the evident pur- 
pose of devoting himself to its best interests. 
The city turned out in its best finery to welcome 
the new Governor ; but to the hfelong courtier, bred 
in the household of royalty itself, this display ap- 
peared primitive and garish. As he recalled the 
usual brilliance of even the provincial courts of 
France, the rude and rugged walls of Castle St. 
Louis loomed before his critical eye in depressing 
contrast. And yet in his reception spectacular 
features were not entirely wanting. The Hurons 
from ancient Lorette flocked to the city to greet their 
new white chief; the coureurs de bois in bold 
effrontery came to take the measure of their new 
antagonist ; the sombre Jesuits with much misgiving 
hailed the arrival of so virile an executive ; and the 
soldiers of the garrison acclaimed the gallant bearer 
of such prowess with salvos of artillery and 2Lfeu de 
joie. 

Once duly installed, Frontenac could see no reason 
why even the wilderness-colony of New France should 
forgo the rightful forms and functions of a royal 
province. His mind wandered back regretfully to 



ii6 OLD QUEBEC 



CHAP. 



the old days of the Estates General, which the kings 
of France were carefully burying in the cemetery of 
disuse. Technically they still existed, although the 
makers of absolute monarchy gave them no place in 
the machinery of government. Loving pomp and 
circumstance, Frontenac conceived the idea of re- 
producing the Estates General in New France. 

The Jesuits were more than ready to constitute 
the order of the clergy, the small groups of gentil- 
hommes made eager nobles, while the Quebec bour- 
geoisie^ although they had never played the part 
before, called themselves the Tiers Etat^ and meekly 
awaited the further pleasure of the commanding 
Frontenac. 

By and by all was ready, and heralds posted at 
the door of the Jesuits' church, which had been gor- 
geously decorated for the occasion, sounded the 
assembly. Frontenac, brilliantly apparelled, took 
his place upon the dais ; the gallant noblesse^ in various 
attire, grouped themselves protectingly about his 
person ; the sable Jesuits looked critically on ; while 
the Third Estate hung breathlessly upon the gracious 
motions of his Excellency. A sunbeam from Ver- 
sailles had fallen upon the rock in the wilderness, and 
Quebec once more basked in the splendour of a 
royal province. 

One person of eminence, however, looked askance 
at the assembled "States." The Intendant Talon 



VII FRONTENAC AND LA SALLE 117 

too well knew the temper of the King to play with 
this fire so like to kindle his wrath. A disciple of 
Colbert, he knew that all constitutional or traditional 
forms standing in the path of absolutism were 
doomed to destruction. 

As for Frontenac, he went his own unheeding 
way until a letter came from Colbert in this 




OLD ST. LOUIS GATE 



strain : " Your assembling of the inhabitants to take 
the oath of fidelity, and your division of them into 
three estates, may have had a good effect for the 
moment ; but it is well for you to observe that you 
are always to follow, in the government of Canada, 
the forms in use here ; and since our kings have long 
regarded it as good for their service not to convoke 
the States General of the kingdom, in order, perhaps, 
to abolish insensibly this ancient usage, you, on your 



ii8 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

part, should very rarely, or to speak more correctly, 
never, give a corporate form to the inhabitants of 
Canada.- You should even, as the colony strengthens, 
suppress gradually the office of the syndic who 
presents petitions in the name of the inhabitants ; 
for it is well that each should speak for himself, and 
no one for all." 

Thus at one fell swoop perished the only chance 
which ever came to French Canada of growing into 
a self-governing colony and of working out its own 
destiny. The physical conditions and administrative 
necessities of the land were, indeed, from first to last, 
misapprehended by its distant rulers. 

For a time Frontenac nursed the chagrin natural 
to a proud and haughty nature thwarted in its 
purposes. Straightway he fell foul of Talon, and 
the latter withdrew to France. It was natural also 
that he should quarrel with the Jesuits and the 
Bishop, for where there was any question of mastery, 
he was always ready to contend. As an instance, the 
Bishop had pronounced the sale of brandy to the 
Indians a sin ; and in view of the fact that the traffic 
was licensed under royal authority, Frontenac with 
his accustomed vehemence pronounced the prohibi- 
tion seditious. He accused the Jesuits of keeping 
the Indians in perpetual wardship, and of thinking 
more of beaver-skins than of souls. 

The next conflict was with a foeman well worthy 



VII FRONTENAC AND LA SALLE 119 

of his steel. An officer named Perrot had been ap- 
pointed Governor of Montreal through the influence 
of Talon, his uncle by marriage ; and as it was a 
matter of common knowledge that Perrot was the 
patron and shared the profits of the coureurs de 
bois, the enmity of Frontenac was roused against 
him, gaining vigour from the fact that Perrot carried 
his head too high. Bizard, another officer, was 
despatched with three guardsmen to Montreal, 
to arrest one Lieutenant Carion, who had assisted 
certain notable coureurs de bois in their escape from 
justice ; and Perrot, frenzied by this trespass upon 
his own domain, seized the Governor's officers. On 
hearing of such a reprisal, Frontenac's wrath was 
kindled sevenfold. He knew, however, that Perrot 
was only to be apprehended by strategy, and accord- 
ingly a letter was despatched, inviting him to come 
to Quebec to explain the affair. Perrot, already 
alarmed at his own boldness in resisting vice-regal 
authority, obediently set out for the court of Fron- 
tenac, attended by a Sulpitian priest, the Abbe 
Salignac de Fenelon. 

High words marked the interview of Frontenac 
and Perrot, and as a result the latter found himself 
a prisoner in Chateau St. Louis. In due time he 
was brought before the sovereign council and con- 
victed of obstructing the King's justice. He was 
confined for almost a year, and then, as the priests 



I20 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

also joined in protest against the autocratic gover- 
nance of Krontenac, it was judged prudent to refer the 
matter to the King. Perrot was accordingly taken 
from prison and shipped to France for a new 
trial. The result, however, was the vindication of 
Frontenac, both Louis and Colbert being deter- 
mined to uphold the royal authority. Perrot was 
sentenced to three weeks in the Bastile, after which 
he tendered submission to Frontenac, and was again 
commissioned Governor of Montreal. 

Henceforth friendship took the place of enmity, 
and the two governors now conspired to patronise 
the coureurs de bois. These were halcyon days 
for the picturesque banditti, whose periodical visits 
disturbed the wonted calm of the saintly city. The 
inhabitants shut themselves up in their houses while 
these bacchanals ran riot in the streets, bedecked in 
French and Indian finery, and making hideous both 
day and night with their ribald chansons. Yet even 
these roystering forest rovers were destined to bear a 
part in building up French empire in the West. 

The coureurs de bois were in 'fact the most 
intrepid explorers of New France, and their rovings 
were turned to account under the tactful guidance 
of Talon. Talon's aim was to occupy the interior 
of the continent, control the rivers which watered it, 
and hold this vast forest domain for France against 
all other nations ; and for this Imperial work he 



VII FRONTENAC AND LA SALLE 121 

enrolled the daring Jesuit priests and the adventurous 
fur-traders. His chief reliance, however, was upon 
those Frenchmen whose civilised ennui had driven 
them to the restless life of the woods. 

In the pursuit of this "forward" policy, the Jesuits 
had already established missions on Manatoulin Isl- 
and, at Sault Ste. Marie, at Michillimackinac, at La 
Pointe on the western end of Lake Superior, and at 
Green Bay near the foot of Lake Michigan. These 
remote posts were visited from time to time by Ind- 
ians from the far west, who brought news of a great 
river flowing southwards. Talon's enthusiasm for 
enterprise in the unknown west was doubled by the 
report, and he forthwith despatched an expedition 
under the leadership of Joliet and Pere Marquette 
to take possession of the Father of Waters. 

Louis Joliet was a native French Canadian, born 
at Quebec in 1645. ^^^ exceptional brilliancy while 
a student at the Jesuits' College attracted the atten- 
tion of Talon ; but at the age of seventeen, the forest 
proved more alluring than the priesthood, and he be- 
came an adventurous fur-trader. His companion, 
the Pere Marquette, was a fearless Jesuit, who in 
1670 had undertaken a mission at the western end 
of Lake Superior. The destruction of this post, 
however, sent him back to Michillimackinac, where 
he was working when ordered westward with Joliet. 

Leaving St. Ignace in the middle of May, 1673, 



122 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

the two voyageurs proceeded to the head of Lake 
Michigan, ascended the Fox River, portaged to the 
Wisconsin, and on the 17th of June reached the 
Mississippi. They descended this broad and rapid 
stream as far as the mouth of the Arkansas. It now 
seemed clear that the great river emptied, not into 
the Vermilion Sea^ as was currently conjectured, but 
into the Gulf of Mexico ; and fearing to fall into the 
hands of the Spaniards, the explorers decided to re- 
trace their steps. They reached Green Bay before 
the end of September, and here the Jesuit remained 
to recruit his failing strength, while Joliet kept on 
his way to Quebec. Nine years were to pass by be- 
fore the navigation of the Mississippi, thus begun, 
was to be completed by the greatest of all Canadian 
adventurers. 

Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle, was born at 
Rouen, of a family of wealthy merchants, on the 2nd 
of November, 1643. -^^ ^ child he was sent to a 
Jesuits' school ; and although, like Joliet, he soon 
abandoned all idea of entering the priesthood, he 
nevertheless retained a pious enthusiasm which 
gave a mediaeval colouring to the stirring romance 
of his after-life. With a small allowance from his 
family. La Salle embarked for Canada in 1666. 
Through his brother, a priest of St. Sulpice, he was 
granted a feudal fief at Lachine, and under his 

1 Gulf of California. 



VII FRONTENAC AND LA SALLE 123 

resolute occupation the hitherto dangerous seigneury 
became a strong bulwark for the trembhng settlement 
of Montreal. Young, gallant, and winning, La Salle 
drew the Indians about him by his dashing courage 
and by the magnetism of his person ; and, whether 




ROBERT CAVELIER DE LA SALLE 



through weakness of flesh or strength of spirit, he 
disappeared among them and withdrew from civilisa- 
tion for the space of three years, a term which he 
employed in achieving mastery of Indian dialects 
and gaining knowledge of their character. On his 
return to Quebec in 1673, he found favour in the 
eyes of Frontenac, and an inexplicable sympathy 
united the proud veteran of a hundred fights and 



124 OLD 0UP:BEC chaf. 

the debonair coureur de bois^ beneath whose dreamy 
countenance the Governor read reckless valour and 
invincible determination. 

In 1677 La Salle was despatched to France to 
procure royal authority for following up the explora- 
tions of Joliet and Marquette. He also applied for 
a patent of nobility ; and as this request was strongly 
supported by Frontenac, he was made seigneur over 
a large tract of land, including the fort of Cataraqui/ 
and was empowered to build and occupy other forts 
in furtherance of exploration. The opening sentences 
of this instrument show the King's anxiety to 
extend his vast dominions in the New World : 
" Louis, by the grace of God, King of France 
and Navarre, to our dear and well-beloved Robert 
Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle, greeting. We have 
received with favour the very humble petition made 
us in your name, to permit you to labour at the 
discovery of the western parts of New France ; and 
we have the more willingly entertained this pro- 
posal since we have nothing more at heart than the 
exploration of this country, through which, to all 
appearances, a way may be found to Mexico. . . ." 

To La Salle the commission was full of promise, 
for his ardent mind was filled with bold designs. He 
foresaw a time when French enterprise, leaving the 
rugged civilisation on the banks of the St. Lawrence, 

^ Later called Fort Frontenac, and the site of the present city of Kingston. 



VII FRONTENAC AND LA SALLE 125 

would seize upon the rich valley of the Mississippi ; a 
fortified post at the mouth of the Father of Waters 
would hold the interior of the continent against the 
Spaniards; and the peltries and buffalo hides of the 
great West would fill his forts with gold. With 
Henri de Tontv, La Motte de Lussiere, Father 
Hennepin, and thirty men, La Salle hastened to 
Quebec in the summer of 1678, and without loss 
of time he organised his first expedition to the 
distant Mississippi. 

The story of that enterprise is a tale of disaster 
which has few parallels in history. A perilous pas- 
sage over Lake Ontario in a ten-ton vessel brought 
them to Niagara. Above the falls they built The 
Griffin^ a schooner of forty-five tons, to carry the 
necessities of the Mississippi settlement westward 
by way of the Great Lakes. This vessel was lost by 
some obscure calamity, and the conjecture is that she 
foundered in Lake Michigan. La Salle now found 
himself at the head of a mutinous company stranded 
at Fort Crevecoeur on the Illinois, facing a winter 
with practically no provisions. Six of his men 
deserted, and on two occasions treachery all but 
deprived him of his life. 

In the circumstances La Salle saw only one possi- 
ble course before him : to return to Fort Frontenac 
for fresh supplies and material for further progress. 
Leaving Tonty his trusted lieutenant in charge of 



126 OLD QUEBEC 



CHAP. 



Fort Crevecoeur, he set out with an Indian guide and 
four Frenchmen. The hardships and disasters of 
the journey deprived him of his companions, one by 
one, but he pressed on alone. " During sixty-five 
days he had toiled almost incessantly, travelling about 
a thousand miles through a country beset with every 
form of peril and obstruction. ... In him an un- 
conquerable mind held at its service a frame of iron, 
and taxed it to its utmost endurance. The pioneer 
of Western pioneers was no rude son of toil, but a 
man of thought, trained amid arts and letters." ^ 

This first chapter of his reverses, however, was 
not yet completed ; for even while La Salle was 
getting succour for his company on the Illinois, a 
letter arrived from Tonty telling him of the mutiny 
of the garrison and the wilful destruction of Fort 
Crevecoeur with all it held. The calamitous news 
would have killed the spirit of any one less coura- 
geous than La Salle ; but the bold explorer, whose 
whole life was a long grapple with adversity, prepared 
with all haste to return to the rescue of Tonty, who, 
he hoped forlornly, had survived the mutinous 
treachery. By the loth of August he was ready, 
and with a new outfit and twenty-five men he set 
out once more for the distant Illinois. 

After three months of toil and hardship he came 
again to Fort Crevecoeur. Anxiety for Tonty and 

1 Parkman, La Salle and the Disco-very of the Great PFest, chap. xiv. 



VII FRONTENAC AND LA SALLE 127 

his faithful companions had consumed him all the 
way. Yet he was unprepared for the shocking sight 
that met his eyes. The once populous town of the 
Illinois was now a valley of dry bones ; the bodies 
of women and children strewed the plain, and the 
charred trophies of Illinois warriors hung tragically 
upon blackened stakes. Such were the terrible marks 
of an Iroquois visitation. 

Wolves ran howling away as the Frenchmen drew 
near, and voracious buzzards wheeled overhead. 
Anxiously La Salle sought among the revolting 
remnants for any sign of Tonty ; but none was to be 
found, and although the relief expedition continued 
for weeks and months to search for their missing 
comrades, it was spring before the explorer heard 
with joy that his lieutenant had found refuge among 
the Pottawattamies. Meanwhile, his resources for 
the Mississippi expedition had been again dissipated, 
and once more he returned to Fort Frontenac for 
fresh supplies. 

Soon, for the third time, the persistent adventurer 
set his face towards the west. His company now 
included twenty-three Frenchmen and eighteen 
Indians, equipped with all the care his former ex- 
periences could suggest. Summer had gone before 
his plans were completed ; but all seasons were alike 
to La Salle, and in the early autumn his expedition 
began. Lake Huron was reached in October, 



128 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

Fort Miami a few weeks later, and on the 6th of 
February their canoes glided out of the Illinois into 
the eddying current of the Mississippi. 

Down past the turbid Missouri they swept, and 
beyond the mouth of the Ohio. Every day brought 
them newer signs of spring, and every day saw the 
spirits of La Salle rising at the happy consciousness 
of fulfilled ambition. On the 13th of March they 
encamped near the mouth of the Arkansas, and 
three hundred miles below they were well received 
by the Natchez Indians. On the 6th of April the 
great river divided before them into three wide 
channels : La Salle followed that of the west ; Tonty 
took the middle course ; and D'Autray descended 
the eastern passage. On the 19th of April the 
three parties met on the Gulf of Mexico. A cross 
bearing the arms of France was set up, and the 
country was named Louisiana after the Grand 
Monarch. 

The Louisiana of to-day conveys no idea of the 
vast tract of country defined by La Salle's proclama- 
tion of 1682. To the explorer it meant the extent 
of the mighty continent, stretching westward from 
the Alleghanies to the Rockies, and north and south 
from Lake Superior to the Gulf of Mexico. All 
former accessions of territory were small beside it, 
and to his eyes it seemed the fertile Canaan 
of French enterprise. Yet the very magnitude of 



VII FRONTENAC AND LA SALLE 129 

this new success made for the undoing of New 
France, by scattering her feeble forces over the 
length and breadth of a continent and distending 
her line of defence so far that it could be easily 
pierced. La Salle, however, was driven irresistibly 
forward by the hot ambition which ruled him. His 
romantic vision pictured a greater New France in 
the valley of the Mississippi, governed by himself — 
a prosperous trading colony shipping cargoes of 
beaver-skins directly to Europe by way of the Gulf 
of Mexico. Quebec, however, was the home of his 
enemies. His former reverses had shattered the 
faith of creditors, while the Canadian merchants 
envied him the monopoly of the Western trade. 
They heaped calumny upon his enterprises, labelled 
him a coureur de bois^ and persistently wrecked his 
schemes. Final success enabled La Salle in a 
measure to disregard these annoyances ; but when 
the new Governor, La Barre, went the length of 
seizing Fort Frontenac — thus cutting off the far 
west from its supplies — and even declared him an 
outlaw, La Salle, although he had but lately recov- 
ered from a fever, made up his mind to carry his 
cause to France. 

In the spring of 1 684, therefore, the weatherbeaten 
woodsman of the New World stood before the throne 
of the Grand Monarch ; and although the Court had 
greater terrors for him than the Canadian forests, yet 



I30 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

he was able to set forth the rights of his case with 
the honest boldness of a frontiersman and the force 
of a cultured intellect. Louis followed his words 
with deepest interest, and was moved to carry out a 
purpose which for some time had possessed his 
mind. Within three months four armed vessels, 
bearing nearly four hundred men, set sail from 
Rochelle for the Gulf of Mexico. A new com- 
mission empowered the explorer to establish a 
fort on the southern gulf, from which to harass 
the Spaniards, and to fortify a base near the mouth 
of the Mississippi for the effective control of 
Louisiana. 

But the story of this, the final enterprise of La 
Salle, is a sickening record of disaster. After a 
stormy passage three of the four vessels reached St. 
Domingo, the Sl Francois having fallen a prey to 
Spanish buccaneers. At St. Domingo a violent fever 
threatened the leader's life and mind, and delayed 
further progress for almost two months. At length, 
near the end of December, they entered the Gulf of 
Mexico ; but the uncertainties of its navigation were 
further increased by dense fogs ; and when, after days 
of anxious searching, the fleet came to anchor off a 
low-lying marshy coast. La Salle had sailed four 
hundred miles beyond the mouth of the river he 
sought. Unaware of his mistake, he determined to 
land and build a temporary fort; but the frigate 



VII FRONTENAC AND LA SALLE 131 

Aimable^ laden with stores, was wrecked upon 
a reef; Beaujeu, the recreant commander of 
the Joly^ deserted his leader and made sail for 
France, and presently La Salle was left with 
only the httle frigate Belle. Soon afterwards this 
vessel also sank beneath the stormy waters of the 
forbidden sea. 

Thus, by accident and by disease the imposing ex- 
pedition which had left Rochelle in the midsummer 
of 1684 was now reduced to a wretched band of 
starvelings, huddled together on the malarial sands 
of the Mexican gulf In this last extremity La 
Salle saw one hope of salvation, and the magnitude 
of his new project was characteristic of the invincible 
adventurer whom fate had so otten buffeted in vain. 
At the head of half his followers he boldly set out for 
Canada overland, hoping to bring back succour to 
the desolate maroons who still remained at Matagorda 
Bay. 

Throughout his undertakings the virile mind of 
La Salle had always held his fellows in willing or 
unwilling subjection. The weak were glad to lean 
upon his strength, and to these he was the " guardian 
angel." ^ To others, however, his fine reserve and 
distinguished manner were causes of gnawing dis- 
content. This evident lack of frankness in deal- 
ing with his companions contrasted strangely with 

1 " . . . Notre Ange tutelaire, le Sieur de la Salle." — Douay. 



132 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

that keen appreciation of the character of the Indians 
which had brought him such success in his inter- 
course with them. The handful of men with whom 
he set out from Matagorda Bay on the yth of 
June, 1687, besides a few whose admiration for 
their leader knew no bounds, also included others 
who, like the children of Israel, thirsted for the life 
of him who had led them out into the wilderness 
to die. 

Week after week the little band of Frenchmen 
struggled on, now through a sea of prairie grass, 
now wading through deep savannahs, and presently 
swimming or fording streams which blocked their 
progress. Despair invaded the camp, and hostile 
murmurings arose against La Salle and the little 
group who remained true to him. A terrible plot 
was on foot. Presently the blow fell. Moranget, 
La Salle's nephew, was despatched with an axe ; Nika, 
the faithful Shawanoe, and Saget, the leader's servant, 
were murdered as they slept. As for La Salle, a 
wanton bullet pierced his brain. Thus the man who 
had braved the poisoned arrows of the Iroquois and 
the hatchets of Indians without number, against 
whose iron strength deadly fevers had stormed in 
vain, whose fortitude had been unbroken by the 
almost incredible perversities of fortune — this 
paladin of the wilderness was at last laid low by the 
hand of a traitor. The New World has no more 



VII FRONTENAC AND LA SALLE 133 

piteous tale than that of the unabated sufferings of 
La Salle, who knew no fear and acknowledged 
no defeat, even at the hands of a relentless 
destiny. It has no nobler record than the tale of 
his life. 



CHAPTER VIII 

FIRE, MASSACRE, AND SIEGE 

At Quebec, Frontenac did what he could to promote 
the bold designs of La Salle. Nevertheless, the 
explorer had been forced to furnish his own men 
and supplies, getting trading privileges in return — an 
arrangement by w^hich the King had all the glory 
without any of the risk. There were those in 
Quebec, indeed, who suspected the Governor of 
having a personal interest in La Salle's adventures, 
and enemies were not slow to credit him further with 
a share in profits from illegal trade in furs. The 
Intendant Duchesneau fomented these suspicions, 
and his letters to the King and the minister were 
filled with black charges against Frontenac. The 
latter, in his turn, called the Intendant to account; 
and Quebec was then ranged into two camps — the 
Bishop and the Jesuits siding with the Intendant, 
while the Recollet friars and the merchants supported 
Frontenac. Every ship carried home to France a 

134 



cH.viii FIRE, MASSACRE, AND SIEGE 135 

budget of letters filled with charges and counter- 
charges, until it became apparent to the Court that 
a bitter civil strife was raging in the distant colony ; 
and the King, unable to judge between the antago- 
nists, finally recalled them both. 

The new Governor, La Barre, met with ill-omens 
on arrival. His predecessor had scarce departed 
when Quebec was visited by the first of those 
destructive fires which were destined to rage so 
often through its winding streets. The summer of 
1682 had been exceptionally dry, and on the night 
of the 4th of August a fire began in the house of 
Etienne Planchon and spread with dreadful speed 
over the whole of Lower Town. Fifty-five houses 
were burnt to the ground on this occasion, and 
Lower Town became a heap of ashes. One house 
alone escaped, that of the merchant Aubert de la 
Chesnaye ; and more than half the wealth of Canada 
was destroyed. 

If so be that misfortunes ever come singly, the 
history of Quebec at least has never been able to 
afford an example ; and as if destructive fire were 
an insufficient visitation of angry fate, other 
misfortunes, no less cruel, now came upon the 
city. In these years, indeed, it seemed that 
Nature herself was leagued with the enemies of 
Quebec ; for in the Jesuit Relations we have 
a circumstantial if highly imaginative account of a 



136 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

violent earthquake which visited the Province in 
1663: — 

" Many of the French inhabitants and Indians," says 
the writer, " who were eye-witnesses to the scene, state 
that a great way up the river of Trois Rivieres, about 
eighteen miles below Quebec, the hills which bordered 
the river on either side, and which were of a prodi- 
gious height, were torn from their foundations and 
plunged into the river, causing it to change its course 
and spread itself over a large tract of land recently 
cleared; . . . lakes appeared where none ever existed 
before ; mountains were overthrown, swallowed up by 
the gaping earth, or precipitated into adjacent rivers, 
leaving in their place frightful chasms or level plains. 
. . . Rivers in many parts of the country sought 
other beds, or totally disappeared. The earth and 
mountains were violently split and rent in innumer- 
able places, creating chasms and precipices whose 
depths have never yet been ascertained. Such devas- 
tation was also occasioned in the woods, that more 
than a thousand acres in one neighbourhood were 
completely overturned." 

Another account of this event is given by an 
Ursuline sister: — 

" The first shock of earthquake took place on 
5th February, 1663, about half-past five in the 
evening. The weather was calm and serene, when 
we heard a terrible noise and humming sound like 



VIII FIRE, MASSACRE, AND SIEGE 137 

that of a great number of heavy carriages rolling 
over a paved floor swiftly. After this one heard, 
both above and below the earth and on all sides, as 
it were a confused mingling of waves and billows, 
which caused sensations of horror. Sounds were 
heard as of stones upon the roof, in the garrets, and 
chambers ; a thick dust spread around ; doors opened 
and shut of themselves. The bells of all our churches 
and clocks sounded of themselves ; and the steeples 
as well as the houses swayed to and fro, like trees 
in a great wind. And all this in the midst of a 
horrible confusion of furniture turned over, stones 
falling, boards breaking, walls cracking, and the 
cries of domestic animals, of which some entered the 
houses and some went out ; in a word, it seemed to 
be the eve of the Day of Judgment whose signs were 
witnessed. Very different impressions were made on 
us. Some went forth for fear of being buried in the 
ruins of our house, which was seen to jog as if made 
of cards ; others prostrated themselves at the fo,ot of 
the altar, as if to die there. One good lay sister was 
so terrified that her body trembled for an hour with- 
out ability to stop the agitation. When the second 
shock came, at eight o'clock the same evening, we 
were all ranged in our stalls at the choir. It was 
very violent, and we all expected death every moment, 
and to be engulfed in the ruins of the building. . . . 
No person was killed. The conversions were extra- 



138 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

ordinary, and one ecclesiastic assured me that he had 
taken more than eight hundred confessions," 

Such things as these seemed not to dampen the 
ardour of those whose fortunes were cast in New 
France. Personal prowess and force of character 
were the natural result of trouble and disaster. 
La Barre, however, proved a dire exception to the 
rule. His hands shook in the hour of trial ; he 
weakly grasped occasion. The magnificent but tragi- 
cal career of La Salle had annexed a vast domain to 
the French possessions in North America, while Du 
Lhut, La Durantaye, Nicolas Perrot, and the rest of 
the coureurs de bois had, by their adventurous trad- 
ing, given even the remote Sioux and Assiniboins an 
interest in the fur trade of France. By this rapid 
expansion of French influence the Five Nation 
Indians at last saw themselves hemmed in by tribes 
under the influence of Quebec, their hunting grounds 
limited to a small and now partly exhausted area. In 
order to procure guns and ammunition from their 
English friends they were compelled to take thought 
for the decreasing peltries. A destructive raid into 
the Illinois valley was the first step in their new 
policy, which was the annihilation of all those 
tribes which traded with the French, and the diver- 
sion of the beaver trade to the wealthier merchants 
of New England. 

At all hazards New France was bound to prevent 



VIII FIRE, MASSACRE, AND SIEGE 139 

this dire blow from falling upon her allies, whose 
adherence to the pact rested upon the ability of 
French arms to protect them. But French prestige 
among the Indians so suffered under the weak-kneed 
administration of La Barre, that the Iroquois became 
bolder in contravening the treaty of peace, while the 
Western tribes were on the point of going over to 
the English. These circumstances prompted the 
expedition of 1684. 

With a hundred regulars, an equal number of 
Canadians, and a composite band of Indians, La Barre 
set out from Quebec to destroy the Senecas. News 
had been sent to the French trading posts of the 
north, and it was arranged that the main column 
should be joined at Niagara by a force of Hurons, 
Ottawas, Ojibwas, Pottawattamies, and Foxes, whom 
the coureurs de bois had rallied for a last supreme 
effort. But in spite of the strength of this array, 
it was not expected by those who knew the vacil- 
lating Governor that he would be successful. Even 
the most sceptical, however, were not prepared 
for the woeful fiasco which followed. Instead of 
advancing to destroy his enemies. La Barre sum- 
moned them to a council, where the Seneca deputies 
were not slow to perceive the weakness of their 
foe, and contemptuously dictated terms of peace. 
Thus the French were degraded in the eyes of 
their Indian allies, who returned disgusted to their 



I40 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

homes. The event being taken seriously in France, 
La Barre was recalled, and the Marquis de Denon- 
ville appointed in his place. 

It was now becoming clearer that English intrigue 
was behind all these troubles with the Iroquois. 
Dongan, the Catholic Governor of New York at 
this period, a resourceful and adroit politician, 
formed the design of absorbing the territory of the 
Iroquois into the domain of James II. of England; 
and the Indians, while they resisted his ulterior 
purpose, were yet glad enough to get English guns 
for their warfare against the French. Besides this 
direct official action, Dongan encouraged English 
traders to go among the Canadian Indians and wean 
them from their alliance with Quebec. 

At first the rivalry was but a diplomatic duel be- 
tween Denonville and Dongan, England and France 
being then at peace. Soon, however, the colonies of 
the two nations were waging a border warfare of their 
own. While the English were urging the Iroquois 
against their rivals, the furtive hand of the French 
was evident in the raids of the Abenakis upon the 
woods of Acadie ; but at this early stage of the 
dispute the two Powers disclaimed all approval of 
these savage reprisals. 

In 1687 Governor Denonville, mustering a strong 
force at Quebec, moved quickly up the St. Lawrence 
upon the Senecas. Like La Barre he invited a 



viir FIRE, MASSACRE, AND SIEGE 141 

number of chiefs to a conference, but when they 
came he treacherously seized and sent them to the 
galleys of France. He then crossed from Fort 
Frontenac, ravaging and burning their villages and 
towns. Not only the Senecas but the whole Iroquois 
confederacy burned to avenge the terrible warfare of 
Denonville. In small bands they ranged the woods 
round about Quebec and the river settlements, darting 
to and fro like silent shadows, so that for months the 
French suffered daily the anguish of battle, murder, 
and sudden death. Disciplined soldiers were helpless 
against this stealthy warfare, and a man walked in 
danger of his life even within the palisades. 

Great as was their distress, however, it was but a 
prelude to one of the cruellest incidents in Canadian 
history. The night of the 4th of August, 1689, being 
heavy with thunderclouds, fifteen hundred Iroquois 
warriors, under cover of the darkness, crept upon the 
settlement of Lachine, at the western end of the Island 
of Montreal, They scattered stealthily among the 
cabins, and at a given signal surprised the victims in 
their beds. More than two hundred men, women, 
and children were tomahawked in cold blood or carried 
off to a lingering death, the lurid flames of the burning 
seigneury telling their bitter tale to the watchers at 
Montreal. New France was faint with horror ; and 
once more she sighed for the strong protecting arm 
of Frontenac. 



142 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

Meanwhile, the EngHsh Revolution of 1688 had 
driven James II. from the throne, and the French 
king had taken up the cause of the Stuarts against 
William of Orange. England and France were face 
to face in Europe, and in the New World the veiled 
conflict between the rival colonies now gave place to 
open war. The King by this time realised that 
Frontenac, for all his seventy years and his 
reputation for rashness, was the only man qualified 
to fill the difficult post of Governor, and accord- 
ingly sent him again to New France. He reached 
Quebec about the middle of October. It was 
evening, and the citizens had gathered at the quay 
with torches of welcome, while fireworks and 
illuminations blazed in his honour over the streets 
of the Upper Town. Vigorous in spite of his 
years, the grizzled hero of the siege of Arras stood 
once more on the soil of New France, and notwith- 
standing the perfunctory homage of the Jesuits and 
the studied reserve of the Intendant Champigny, 
a feeling of relief thrilled Quebec. An enterprise 
of almost incredible difficulty was to be laid upon 
the shoulders of the veteran ruler. This was 
nothing less than an attack upon New York as a 
preliminary step to the overthrow of all New 
England. A land force was to descend on Albany, 
proceeding by way of the Richelieu, Lake (^hamplain, 
and the Hudson, while two frigates were to assail 



VIII FIRE, MASSACRE, AND SIEGE 143 

New York from the sea. The naval project, how- 
ever, was so feeble and uncertain, so ill-starred, that 
adverse winds on the Atlantic brought it to an 
untimely end. 

Having abandoned for the moment the expedition 
against New York, Frontenac turned his attention first 
to the ever-present Indian problem. The defection 
of the north-western tribes was becoming more and 
more probable notwithstandingthestrenuousefforts of 
the coureurs de bois. Indians were fast losing faith in 
French protection, and before all else it was necessary 
to make the Iroquois understand that the great 0«o«//o^ 
had returned to chastise them. Aiming therefore at 
the revival of French prestige, the Governor organised 
"The three war-parties," a step which may be con- 
sidered as the initial move in that desperate conflict 
which left the flag of England floating over the 
citadel of Quebec. 

The three war-parties, each consisting of regulars, 
coureurs de bois, and Indians, were now despatched 
from Montreal, Three Rivers, and Quebec. The deep 
snows of a Canadian winter lay upon the ground as 
these forces of destruction sallied forth. Leaving 
Montreal, the first party passed down the frozen St. 
Lawrence, and into the wintry ravines of the Richelieu, 
and after a march of terrible hardship, now plung- 
ing through snow-drifts, now benumbed by frost, 

1 The Indian name for Count Frontenac. 



144 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

wading knee-deep through the melting swamps, 
they came at last to the unguarded palisades of the 
Dutch settlement of Corlaer, or Schenectady. It was 
midnight as they stole through the streets of the 
sleeping village, now suddenly wakened by a 
hideous war-whoop, the signal for a massacre as 
terrible as that of Lachine. 

With a similarity of grim details the other two 
war-parties attacked the rival colonies of New 
England. Under cover of the night the band from 
Three Rivers fell upon Salmon Falls, a village on the 
borders of New Hampshire, and put its inhabitants to 
the sword. The victors then joined the column which 
Portneuf had led from Quebec, and together they 
moved down Casco Bay to Fort Loyal, where the 
settlers of the district had assembled for a vigorous 
defence. The New Englanders held out for several 
days against the French and the Abenakis, but at 
length agreed to surrender with the honours of war. 
Portneuf 's pledge of protection, however, was shame- 
lessly broken, and the Indian allies fell upon the 
helpless captives without restraint. 

Such success amply fulfilled the expectations of 
Frontenac, and the wavering tribes of the West now 
hastened to Quebec to confirm their allegiance. In 
New France elation took the place of gloom, and 
bonfires burned among the settlements along the St. 
Lawrence. In New England, however, the threefold 



viri FIRE, MASSACRE, AND SIEGE 145 

atrocity produced an effect that boded ill for Canada. 
In their eagerness to avenge this outrage, the Atlantic 
colonies, up to this time disunited and isolated, now 
pledged themselves to union against a common 
peril, and planned the conquest of the country. 
A force of colonial militia set out from Albany 
against Montreal, while a naval attack was directed 
against Port Royal and Quebec. Sir William Phipps 
sailed from Nantasket with a fleet of seven vessels, 
appearing on the nth of May before Port Royal, 
whose commandant surrendered without a blow. 

The admiral who won this bloodless victory is 
one of the most notable figures in New World 
history. William Phipps was born on the Kennebec 
in 1650, and spent his early life tending sheep in 
the rude border settlement of New England. But 
ambition and love of adventure not being satisfied 
by a pastoral life, the youth soon adopted the trade 
of a ship-carpenter and came to Boston. Here 
fortune in the form of a wealthy widow smiled 
upon him, and he is next found searching for a 
wrecked treasure-ship in the Spanish Main. The 
romantic sailor was, however, at first unsuccessful in 
his quest ; but as he had awakened the interest of the 
Duke of Albemarle, he obtained from this noble- 
man a frigate for a similar adventure ofi^ the coast of 
Hispaniola. In the course of this latter voyage 
his buccaneer crew rebelled, and single-handed the 



146 OLD QUEBEC chap, viii 

powerful Phipps drove them from the quarter-deck. 
Success at length rewarded him, the treasure-ship 
was raised, and through the influence of his illus- 
trious patron the bucolic New Englander received a 
knighthood. Sir William Phipps thus returned to 
his castle in the Green Lane of North Boston with the 
glamour of the court upon him, and was chosen by 
the colonists of Massachusetts to carry out their 
bold designs against Quebec. 

Meanwhile, Frontenac anticipated coming danger 
by strengthening the city. Nature had made the 
position impregnable on the river side, but in 
the rear it was still open to attack. All through 
the winter gangs of men were employed in cutting 
timber in the forest, and dragging hewn palisades 
to the city, where Frontenac superintended the 
erection of stout barricades. While the Governor 
was thus engaged news reached him that Winthrop 
was marching upon Montreal, and thither he hastened 
with all speed. Circumstances, however, had con- 
spired to render futile the expedition from New York 
and Connecticut; and intestine quarrels, followed by 
Iroquois defection, wrecked the English enterprise 
before it had come within striking distance of 
Montreal. 

In the meantime Sir William Phipps had sailed 
for Quebec with a fleet of more than thirty sail, two 
thousand men, and four months' supplies. The 




SIR WILLIAM PHIPPS 



CH.viii FIRE, MASSACRE, AND SIEGE 149 

hope of receiving help from England had somewhat 
delayed the expedition, and it was the 9th of August 
before the admiral slipped his cables in the harbour 
of Nantasket. As this American armada com- 
prised vessels ranging in size from the flag-ship Six 
Friends^ with forty-four guns, down to the fishing 
smacks of Gloucester, its progress was slow. The 
most serious difiiculty, however, was the absence of 
a pilot who knew the dangerous navigation of the 
St. Lawrence. Nevertheless, Phipps decided to 
grope his way up the river. However, news of the 
invasion had already reached Quebec, and Pre- 
vost, the town Mayor, despatched a messenger 
to Frontenac at Montreal, pressing on meanwhile 
with the fortifications already so well under 
way. 

Nature had left the cliffs of Quebec accessible at 
only those three points where later stood Prescott, 
Hope and Palace Gates, and Prevost secured these by 
means of barricades and earthworks. The strand of 
the St. Charles, from the Palace of the Intendant to 
the Sault-au-Matelot, was protected by a continuous 
palisade, and the fortifications begun by Frontenac 
in the previous winter having since been completed, 
now afforded adequate protection upon the landward 
side of the town. Moreover, several batteries were 
disposed at salient points. In the garden which 
flanks the present Dufferin Terrace was a battery 



150 OLD QUEBEC chap, viii 

of eight guns ; while the high cHfF of the Sault-au- 
Matelot and the barricade at Palace Hill were each 
defended by six guns. The windmill on Mount 
Carmel was converted into a small battery, a number 
of light pieces also being collected in the square 
opposite the Jesuits' College, to serve as a reserve 
battery for any weak spot in the defences. Six, 
eighteen, and twenty-four pounders were mounted on 
the wharves of Lower Town. For several days the 
men from the surrounding parishes had been flocking 
into the city, and by the evening of the 15th of 
October about twenty-seven hundred regulars and 
militia were gathered within the fortifications. Next 
day the sun rose upon the New England fleet moored 
in the expansive basin of Quebec. 

All that was possible in the way of defence had 
been accomplished, but in the face of such imposing 
naval strength the assault was awaited with anxiety. 
The women and children repaired to the stone 
convents for refuge, and the men stood by the 
guns. The siege, however, was not to open with a 
cannonade, but a parley. A boat put out from the 
Six Friends with a flag of truce, and soon an English 
lieutenant landed at the Cul-de-sac, bearing a letter 
for the commander of the garrison. Before re- 
ceiving the missive, Frontenac devised a useful and 
whimsical stratagem to raise the prestige of the 
beleaguered city. Phipps's messenger was first of all 




Pjlan jdu Tort ^ 'Louis be Quebec 



M 



PLAN OF FORT ST. LOUIS, 1 68 3 



cH.viii FIRE, MASSACRE, AND SIEGE 153 

blindfolded. Then two sergeants led the bewildered 
envoy by a devious route from the quay up to Fort 
St. Louis, and over the triple barricades of Mountain 
Hill, while the noisy soldiers thronged him, and the 
din of the streets was designedly increased. Finally 
they took the bandage from his eyes. Before him 
stood the haughty Frontenac in the brilliant uniform 




THE CITADEL TO-DAY (fROM DUFFERIN TERRACe) 



of a French marshal, and the council-room of the 
Chateau was crowded with the officers of his staff, 
tricked off in laces of gold and silver with ribbons 
and plumes, powder and perukes. 

Withal, the English envoy was equal to the 
occasion. If the strength of Quebec and its garrison 
filled him with surprise, he gave no sign of it, but 
with a dignity rivalling that of the French Governor 
delivered his admiral's summons to surrender. 



154 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

" Your answer positive in an hour," recited the 
postscript, " returned by your own trumpet with the 
return of mine, is required upon the peril that will 
ensue." 

Frontenac and his aides were not in the least 
prepared to accept the brusque demands of Sir 
William Phipps. Fort Royal, it is true, had been 
cowed into an immediate surrender, but the bluster- 
ing sailor of New England had mistaken Quebec 
and its commandant. 

For a moment the fiery Count controlled his 
temper, then it blazed forth with wonted ardour. 
"Tell your General," he exclaimed, "that I will 
answer him only by the mouths of my cannon, that 
he may learn that the fortress of Quebec is not to 
be summoned after this fashion. Let him do his 
best, and I shall do mine." 

Blindfolded once more, the bearer of the flag of 
truce again scrambled over the barricades, and was 
led down to the river's brink. 

To Phipps, the challenge of Frontenac seemed 
to outdo his own in boldness, and he was filled 
with doubt by the envoy's accounts of the strength 
of Quebec. The black rock of Cape Diamond 
now seemed to tower above him more grimly 
than ever, and with some misgiving he at length 
adopted a bold plan of assault. The infantry, 
under Major Walley, were to land on the flats of 



VIII FIRE, MASSACRE, AND SIEGE 155 

Beauport, cross the St, Charles when the tide was 
out, and assail the flank of the town on the side of 
the Cote Ste. Genevieve ; while Phipps himself 
was to cannonade the city from the river, land a 
storming party, and gain the Upper Town by way 
of the barricades. 

For two more days he delayed putting this plan 
into operation ; and when attempted it was badly 
managed. Frontenac had despatched Sainte-Helene^ 
with three hundred sharpshooters to oppose any 
landing on the Beauport shore, a force which was 
unequal to the task ; for Major Walley, though 
harassed by their fire, succeeded in making his way 
at the head of 1300 men to the ford on the river 
St. Charles. 

Phipps, however, instead of co-operating with the 
land force, had made a premature movement, and 
leaving his moorings had sailed up the channel op- 
posite the city, there to engage in a terrific duel with 
the guns of Fort St. Louis and the several batteries 
of Upper Town. Cannon and mortars belched forth 
their missiles with the rapidity of musketry, making 
an uproar as of a great battle. The English gunners 
made poor practice, however, and the projectiles fall- 
ing within the city did almost no damage. Twenty- 
six cannon-balls dropped harmlessly in the garden 

1 Of the gallant Le Moyne family, of whom also was d'Iberville, the soldier, 
explorer, and governor. 



156 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

of the Ursuline convent, and furnished new ammuni- 
tion for the garrison. On the other hand, the decks 
of the attacking vessels were swept by fire from the 
cliffs. One shot carried away the ensign of the 
flag-ship, and another tore away her rigging and 
shattered her mizzen, and the rest of the fleet was 
similarly battered. 

This unequal cannonade continued for two days 
before Phipps realised its futility. On shore, Walley 
persisted for three days in attempting to force his 
way across the St. Charles ; but his field-pieces were 
half buried in the mud, sickness had attacked his 
camp, and the rain and sleet of an early winter 
completed his discomfiture. Seeing, moreover, that 
their admiral had now ceased to fight, and that 
Frontenac was thus able to concentrate defence 
upon the landward side, the militiamen felt the 
hopelessness of further assault and returned to 
the ships. After this rebuff^ Phipps weighed anchor 
and dropped down stream with his battered 
armada. 

Quebec had been saved, though not without dire 
peril and sore straits ; for before the withdrawal of 
the enemy the crowded city had already felt the 
pinch of famine, and the violence of the batteries had 
all but emptied her magazines. Throughout the 
bombardment a picture of the Holy Family had 
hung inviolate on the spire of the Basilica, defying 



VIII FIRE, MASSACRE, AND SIEGE 157 

the heretical cannonade ; and in cloister and chapel 
the beleaguered citizens had ceaselessly invoked their 




NOTRE DAME DE LA VICTOIRE 



favourite saints. To one and all the victory was of 
Heaven, and in the midst of her rejoicing Quebec 
did not forget to redeem her vows. The little chapel 



1^8 OLD QUEBEC chap, viii 

of Notre Dame de la Victoire, hidden among the 
quaint windings of the streets below the Terrace, 
still stands as a monument to that religious fidelity 
with which the citizens of Quebec had faced another 
of their many perils. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE CLOSE OF THE CENTURY 

The great strength of its natural position had 
enabled the city to withstand the late siege ; but 
Frontenac saw clearly that the defences would not 
be sufficient to meet a resolute assault, and it was 
resolved to reconstruct the fortifications on a larger 
scale. The great engineer Vauban furnished plans 
which were carried out under Frontenac's personal 
direction. For twenty leagues around the habitants 
were pressed into this service, and such was the 
general anxiety to make the city impregnable, that 
even the gentilhommes gave themselves to pick and 
spade. A line of solid earthworks soon extended on 
the flank of the city from Cape Diamond to the St. 
Charles ; and at the summit of the Cape, now for 
the first time embraced within the fortifications, a 
strong redoubt with sixteen cannon was constructed 
to command both the river and the Upper 
Town. 

159 



i6o OLD QUEBEC chap. 

A copper plate^ bearing the following inscription 
in Latin was deposited in the stone foundation : — 

"In the year of Grace, 1693, under the reign 
of the Most August, Most Invincible, and Most 
Christian King, Louis the Great, Fourteenth of that 
name, the Most Excellent and Most Illustrious 
Lord, Louis de Buade, Count of Frontenac, twice 
Viceroy of all New France, after having three years 
before repulsed, routed, and completely conquered 
the rebellious inhabitants of New England, who 
besieged this town of Quebec, and who threatened to 
renew the attack this year, constructed, at the charge 
of the King, this citadel, with the fortifications 
therewith connected, for the defence of the country 
and the safety of the people, and for confounding 
yet again a people perfidious towards God and 
towards its lawful king. And he has laid this first 
stone." 

The repulse of Phipps, while postponing indefi- 
nitely any further undertakings of the New England 
government against Quebec, had conveyed no lesson 
to the implacable Iroquois. These fatal hornets of 
the woods continued to harass the settlements, 
roving through the forest in small marauding bands. 
A large force also established a camp on the Ottawa 
to intercept the furs destined for Quebec, and 
their blockade was so effective that the city soon 

1 Discovered at the demolition of the old wall in 1854. 



IX THE CLOSE OF THE CENTURY i6i 

felt the pinch of want, and the trading ships sailed 
empty back to France. So bold were the assaults 
that many settlers fled from their farms to Montreal, 
Three Rivers, or Ouebec : while those who had the 
hardihood to remain went about in armed groups to 
reap their harvests. The massacre of La Chesnaye 
was a typical incident ; but perhaps the most char- 
acteristic story of these troublous years is the Recit de 
Mile. Magdelaine de Vercheres, well known through 
a renowned historical narrative. 

The seigneury of Vercheres lay upon the south 
shore of the St. Lawrence, seven leagues below 
Montreal, and from its exposed position as well as 
from its former tribulation, had earned the name of 
Castle Dangerous. Its history dated back to the 
disbandment of the Carignan-Salieres regiment, when 
M. de Vercheres, a dashing officer of Savoy, took 
possession of the fief, building there a fort and 
blockhouse. 

It was already late October, 1692. The seigneur 
had gone down to Ouebec for duty, and the lady of 
the manor was in Montreal. Their three children, 
Madeleine aged fourteen, and the two boys aged 
twelve and ten, had been left behind protected by 
the feeble garrison of the fort, consisting of two 
soldiers and an old man of eighty, the servants and 
censitaires being busy with the autumn work of the 
fields. 



i62 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

One morning as Madeleine was playing near the 
water's edge, she was startled by the sound of firing. 
A band of Iroquois had fallen upon the field-workers. 
Commending herself to the Holy Virgin, the girl 
ran towards the fort. Bullets whistled past her as 
she flew towards the palisade crying " To arms ! 
To arms!" The two soldiers had already fled 
in terror to the blockhouse, but by her resolute 
words she shamed them into a defence of the fort; 
and picking up a gun, she said to her two young 
brothers : — 

" Let us fight to the death. We are fighting for 
our country and our religion ; remember that our 
father has taught you that gentlemen are born to 
shed their blood for God and the King."^ 

Taking their positions at the loopholes, the little 
company maintained such a vigilant defence that the 
Iroquois were completely deceived as to the strength 
of the garrison. 

"After sunset," continues the narrative, "a vio- 
lent north-east wind began to blow, accompanied 
by snow and hail, which told us that we should have 
a terrible night. The Iroquois were all this time 
lurking about us ; and I judged by their movements 
that, instead of being deterred by the storm, they 
would climb into the fort under cover of the dark- 

^ The narrative has been preserved in the heroine's own words, through the 
care of the Marquis de Beauharnois, sometime Governor of Canada. 



IX THE CLOSE OF THE CENTURY 163 

ness. I assembled all my troops, that is to say, 
six persons, and spoke to them thus : ' God has 
saved us to-day from the hands of our enemies, but 
we must take care not to fall into their snares 
to-night. As for me, I want you to see that 1 am 
not afraid. I will take charge of the fort with an 
old man of eighty, and another who never fired a 
gun ; and you, Pierre Fontaine, with La Bonte and 
Gachet, will go to the blockhouse with the women 
and children, because that is the strongest place ; 
and if I am taken do not surrender, even if 1 am 
cut to pieces and burned before your eyes. The 
enemy cannot hurt you in the blockhouse if you 
make the least show of fight.' I placed my young 
brothers on two of the bastions, the old man on the 
third, and I took the fourth ; and all night, in spite 
of wind, snow, and hail, the cries of 'All's well' 
were kept up from the blockhouse to the fort, and 
from the fort to the blockhouse. One would have 
thought the place was full of soldiers. The Iroquois 
thought so, and were completely deceived, as they 
confessed afterwards to Monsieur de Callieres, whom 
they told that they had held a council to make a 
plan for capturing the fort in the night, but had 
done nothing because such a constant watch was 
kept. . . . 

" At last the daylight came again ; and as the 
darkness disappeared our anxieties seemed to dis- 



i64 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

appear with it. Everybody took courage except 
Mademoiselle Marguerite, the wife of the Sieur 
Fontaine, who, being extremely timid, as all Parisian 
women are, asked her husband to carry her to another 
fort. . . . He said, ' I shall never abandon this fort 
while Mademoiselle Madeleine is here.' I answered 
him that I would never abandon it; that I would 
rather die than give it up to the enemy; and that 
it was of the greatest importance that they should 
never get possession of any French fort. ... I may 
say with truth that I did not eat or sleep for twice 
twenty-four hours. I did not go once into my 
father's house, but kept always on the bastion, or 
went to the blockhouse to see how the people there 
were behaving. I always kept a cheerful and smiling 
face, and encouraged my httle company with the 
hope of speedy succour. 

" We were a week in constant alarm, with the 
enemy always about us. At last Monsieur de la 
Monnerie, a lieutenant sent by Monsieur de Callieres, 
arrived in the night with forty men. As he did not 
know whether the fort was taken or not, he approached 
as silently as possible. One of our sentinels hearing 
a slight sound, cried ' Qui vive ? ' I was dozing at 
the time, with my head on the table and my gun 
lying across my arms. The sentinel told me that he 
heard a voice from the river. I went up at once to 
the bastion to see whether it was Indians or French- 



IX THE CLOSE OF THE CENTURY 165 

men. I asked, ' Who are you ? ' One of them 
answered, ' We are Frenchmen ; It is La Monnerie, 
who comes to bring you help.' 

" I caused the gate to be opened, placed a sentinel 
there, and went down to the river to meet them. 
As soon as I saw Monsieur de la Monnerie, I saluted 
him, and said, ' Monsieur, I surrender my arms to 
you.' He answered gallantly, * Mademoiselle, they 
are in good hands.' ' Better than you think,' I 
returned. 

" La Monnerie inspected the fort and found 
everything in good order, and a sentinel on each 
bastion. ' It is time to relieve them, Monsieur,' I 
said; 'we have not been off our bastions for a 

The inner politics of Quebec shared fully the un- 
rest of this critical time. The place had all the 
intrigue of an Italian republic ; and with its political, 
religious, and social cleavages, the wonder is that a 
city so divided against itself was able to stand in the 
hour of outward adversity. To make clear the 
underlying causes of such civil strife, it is necessary 
to go back to the year 1659, when the most notable 
ecclesiastic in the history of New France arrived In 
Quebec. 

Fran9ois-XavIer Laval was born In 1622 at 
Montigny-sur-Avre. Brought up at the College of 

1 Parkman's Frontenac c. 14 (quoting from Collection de P Abbe Ferland). 



i66 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

the Jesuits at Lafleche, a prolonged sojourn in the 
famous Hermitage of Caen set the seal of a militant 
mysticism upon his life. While still young the 
death of an elder brother had made him heir to the 
title and wealth of one of the most distinguished 
families in France ; but the ardent student renounced 
these feudal glories that he might devote himself 
entirely to the service of God. To him this service 
consisted of a perpetual mortification of the flesh, 
practised chiefly in the hovels of the poor, or by beds 
of loathsome disease. 

Of a mind and temper so austere, he seemed to 
the Jesuits the heaven-called head for the Canadian 
Church ; and it was doubtless through their influence, 
acting upon the Queen Mother, Anne of Austria, 
and Cardinal Mazarin, that Laval was appointed 
titular Bishop of Petraea, in partibiis infidelium^ and 
Vicar-Apostolic of all New France. 

The first bishop of Canada was welcomed by 
pealing bells and general applause ; but the excite- 
ment of his advent had scarcely subsided before a 
sharp ecclesiastical quarrel occurred. M. I'Abbe de 
Queylus, a Sulpitian priest, had lately been appointed 
spiritual head of Quebec by the Archbishop of 
Rouen, who had been wont to regard Canada as a 
part of his own diocese ; and the Sulpitian so vigor- 
ously refused to be superseded by the new bishop, 
that Governor D'Argenson, acting upon the King's 



IX THE CLOSE OF THE CENTURY 167 

orders, had him arrested and sent back to France. 
The quarrel, however, was not so soon decided, and 
supremacy was not finally conceded to Laval until 
both contestants had referred the matter to the Pope 
and the Grand Monarch. 

Success in this churchman's conflict, however, had 
not softened the autocratic temper of the new bishop. 
In France he had already supported the contention 
of the Jesuits against the Jansenists that the power 
of the Pope was above that of the King, and that 
the Church was superior to the State. Laval insisted 
that his acolytes should precede the Governor in re- 
ceiving the consecrated bread, in the distribution of 
boughs on Palm Sunday, in the adoration of the Cross 
on Good Friday, and in the presentation of holy 
water. For a time the gallant old soldier D'Argen- 
son did his best to live in harmony with the Vicar- 
Apostolic, even under the annoying conditions 
created by the churchman's imperious temper. But 
the forbearance of the Governor was not sufficient to 
save him from his opponent's powerful friends at 
Court, who finally compassed his recall. His suc- 
cessors, the Baron D'Avaugour and M. de Mezy, 
however, soon took up the intermitted quarrel on 
behalf of the State, until the new order of govern- 
ment in 1663. 

The institution of royal government in that year 
had a visible effect upon the ecclesiastical power. 



i68 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

Louis XIV. had declared himself to be the State, 
and thus acquired a personal and selfish interest in 
the controversy. Moreover, Talon, the skilled 
agent of Colbert, wishing to readjust and balance the 
disproportionate elements of the body politic, had 
written in 1670 advising the re-introduction of the 
Recollet priests, who arrived eight years later to 
counterbalance the Jesuit forces. 

The advent of Frontenac, likewise, had been a 
severe blow to the priestly autocracy, his strong and 
reckless character stamping him as a man who re- 
quired careful handling. In fact, Laval and the 
Jesuits preferred a vicarious warfare, and confined 
themselves to supporting the Intendant Duchesneau 
in his quarrels with the Governor. 

Notwithstanding these rebuffs, however, the great 
prelate accomplished a lasting work. To this day a 
daily procession of schoolboys walks through the 
streets of Upper Town arresting attention by their 
singular dress — a battalion similar to that which, two 
hundred years ago, appeared in the like quaint cos- 
tume. These are the boys of the Seminaire de Laval. 
This seminary of Quebec was Laval's most notable 
foundation ; and though many generations have 
slipped away since it began, the classic school above 
the Sault-au-Matelot still remains to recruit and train 
the ranks of a priesthood whoseattainments, piety, and 
character are honoured throughout the Catholic world. 



IX THE CLOSE OF THE CENTURY 169 

Late in the afternoon fourscore of these youthful 
devotees swing out along the Rue St. Jean to the 
Ste. Foye road for recreation. They go in orderly 
rows, from the youngest and smallest back, to the 
two priests, in black soutanes and broad-brimmed 
hats, who bring up the rear. Regimes have come 
and gone, but this perennial column still marches 
out of the past incongruously garbed in peaked caps, 
black frockcoats faced with green braid, and girt at 
the waist with a green woollen scarf. This is the 
daily memorial of the eccentric, despotic, but benefi- 
cent bishop, who lived a life of almost abject 
poverty, devoting the revenues of the most wealthy 
seigneury in New France^ to the maintenance of his 
beloved Seminaire. He has left his name also to the 
splendid university which completes the work so well 
begun by the Seminaire. 

For almost forty years Laval had dominated the 
Church of New France, the whole period of his 
supremacy being disturbed by the never-ending 
quarrel between Church and State. The Bishop pro- 
posing to alter the ecclesiastical system of the colony 
by the institution of movable priests, both the King 
and Colbert objected strongly to a scheme which 
would have centralized all spiritual power in the 



1 Laval was the owner of the Seigneury of Beauport and the Isle d'Orleans, which 
by royal edict had been freed from feudal burdens. By the census of 1667 it was 
found to contain more than one-fourth of the entire population of Canada. 



lyo OLD QUEBEC chap. 

hands of one man, and he a spiritual despot, however 
sincere and high-souled. But the inflexible Laval 
contrived for a time to evade or disobey the royal 
instructions that were sent to him, until at length, 
in 1688, he asked to be relieved of his office, and 
the King freely granted his request. Thereupon, 
he handed over the episcopal office to Saint- 
Vallier, and retired to the seclusion of his cherished 
school. 

The destruction of the college by fire in 1701 
almost broke the heart of the venerable prelate; but 
with invincible energy and spirit he began at once 
the work of restoration. In four years the new 
building was completed, and in it he passed the 
evening of his days, until, at the age of eighty- 
six, he closed his eyes for ever on the scene of a 
strenuous, stormy, and holy life. 

Time and events meanwhile had been treating 
Frontenac with equal sternness. The danger from 
New England had for a time relieved him of 
domestic troubles ; but with the failure of Sir William 
Phipps, his clerical enemies at Quebec once more 
began their machinations, in spite of which the versa- 
tile old Governor still contrived to hold his way and 
course. Politically, the city was divided on the 
question of keeping control of the far west ; for 
while some saw danger in dissipating the strength of 
the colony, and therefore advised the maintenance 



IX THE CLOSE OF THE CENTURY 171 

of a smaller but more compact territory, Frontenac, 
the fur traders, and the coureurs de bois^ on the other 
hand, were determined to hold the West and to 
maintain the allegiance of the Indian allies. 

Such, up to the last, was the attitude of the martial 
Governor, who, at the age of seventy-six, was ready 
once more to undertake the punishment of the Iroquois. 
He would fain have walked and toiled like the rest 
of the twenty-two hundred men who composed his 
column ; but the Indian allies, unable to see him en- 
dure the hardships of the march, bore him trium- 
phantly on their shoulders. Their faith in the great 
Onontio was without measure, and French prestige 
among them was now at its highest point. The 
Onondagas fled before their advance ; the Oneidas 
begged for peace. The villages of the enemy were 
given to the flames, and the savages, thus rendered 
homeless, became a charge upon the friendly English 
settlements, only to increase the enmity which already 
marked the relations of the latter with the French 
colony. 

Frontenac returned once more in triumph to 
Quebec, and a semblance of peace reigned in North 
America — the ominous calm before a storm which 
was soon to shake the Continent. The Castle of 
St. Louis now became a centre of gaiety, despite the 
grey hairs of its distinguished occupant, whose spirits 
and buoyancy were still unquenched. Quebec was 



172 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

giving unmistakable signs of a social revolt against 
the rigorous subjection in which the Church had 
held her. Exiled from Fontainebleau, the officers 
of the Governor's suite did their best to improvise a 
counterpart, and the ladies of the ambitious noblesse 
were not loth to join in the crude but brilliant 
revels of the castle. The winter carnival, then, as 
now, afforded merriment to a gay company, the 
King's representative being as keen a pleasure-seeker 
as the rest. On Frontenac's suggestion, private 
theatricals were added to the polite diversions of 
Quebec. The Marquis de Tracy's ball far back in 
1667 had given grievous offence to the Jesuits, and 
the unholy acting of plays was now declared an 
open profanity, Nicomede and Mithridate were con- 
demned as immoral ; but when Tartuffe^ Moliere's 
mordant satire upon religious hypocrisy, was put 
upon the boards, the limits of endurance were reached 
and overpassed. 

La Motte Cadillac, a staff officer, thus describes the 
excitement raised by these performances : "The clergy 
beat their alarm drums, armed cap-a-pie^ and snatched 
their bows and arrows. The Sieur Glandelet was the 
first to begin, and preached two sermons in which he 
tried to prove that nobody could go to a play without 
mortal sin. The Bishop issued a mandate, and had 
it read from the pulpits, in which he speaks of certain 
impious, impure, and noxious comedies, insinuating 



IX THE CLOSE OF THE CENTURY 173 

that those which had been acted were such. The 
credulous and infatuated people, seduced by the 
sermons and the mandate, began already to regard 
the count as a corrupter of morals and a destroyer 
of religion. The numerous party of the pretended 
devotees mustered in the streets and public places. 




THE CITADEL IN WINTER 



and presently . . . persuaded the Bishop to publish 
a mandate in the church whereby the Sieur de 
Mareuil, a half-pay lieutenant, was interdicted the 
use of the sacraments." 

In the midst of it all, death was slowly creeping 
upon the central figure of so many stormy scenes. 
The treaty concluded at Ryswick in 1697, and pro- 
claimed in Canada, improved the position of the 



174 OLD QUEBEC chap, ix 

French in America, encouraging them to new aspira- 
tions of conquest. Already on the brink of the 
grave, the indomitable Frontenac cast his challenge 
in the teeth of New England, claiming the Iroquois 
as the recalcitrant subjects of Louis XIV. The 
gage was duly taken, and although the challenger 
could not await the issue, his visor remained closed 
till the end. Even in death Count Frontenac set 
his face against the Jesuits, for he was buried in the 
Recollet Chapel. When he was laid to rest the 
province was stricken with genuine grief, for all 
men felt that the best bulwark of New France had 
been laid in mortal ruin. 



CHAPTER X 



BORDER WARFARE 



Frontenac's best legacy to Quebec and to Canada 
was the pacification of the Indian tribes. Under his 
stern rule the prestige of France had been restored, 
and to the new Governor, De Callieres, was left 
the duty of arranging the formalities of peace with 
the ancient enemy, the Iroquois. A treaty, how- 
ever, was only concluded in the face of strenuous 
opposition from New England, which now beheld 
with grave concern the changed front of the " Five 
Nations," who, for the space of a hundred years, 
had been the sharpest thorn in the side of New 
France, and whose territory had been as armour- 
plate about their own settlements. 

In opportune time the Treaty of Ryswick had 
nominally settled all points of contention between 
France and England in both hemispheres, and it was 
soon followed by the cessation of hostilities between 
the whites and Indians. The Governor of New 
France summoned deputies from all the tribes to a 

175 



176 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

grand council, at which, after many days of debate, 
he skilfully persuaded them to bury the hatchet and 
submit their internecine differences to Quebec for 
arbitration. Belts of wampum were exchanged, and 
the calumet of peace was passed forthwith between 
the followers and colleagues of De Callieres and the 
painted chiefs of a dozen tribes. 

The conclusion of this treaty was a fortunate 
stroke of French diplomacy, as not many months 
were to pass before Europe became once more 
involved in a war, into which the colonies of the 
rival powers were naturally drawn. Apart from the 
recognition of the English Pretender in France, the 
immediate cause of war in Europe was the question of 
the Spanish succession ; for while Louis XIV. claimed 
the throne for his grandson, Philip of Anjou, Eng- 
land, on the other hand, recognised that this union of 
France and Spain would upset the balance of power 
on both sides of the Atlantic, and that her American 
possessions would be exposed to a cross fire from 
both north and south. 

The great battles of Blenheim, Ramilies, Oude- 
narde, and Malplaquet of the European conflict 
had their counterpart in the petite guerre which was 
waged by the opposing colonies in America. French 
privateers issuing from Port Royal swept along the 
coast of New England, the settlements of Acadia 
suffering reprisals in kind. At last the ruthless 



X BORDER WARFARE 177 

destruction of the little village of Haverhill on the 
Merrimac by a Canadian war-party roused the 
English colonists to fury, and they loudly demanded 
the conquest of Canada. The authorities were 
already predisposed to this large undertaking by 
the arguments of one Samuel Vetch, whom the 
Governor of Massachusetts had formerly despatched 
on a special mission to Canada. Vetch soon per- 
ceived that the defences of Quebec and Montreal 
were not too formidable to be ov^ercome by a well- 
devised assault ; and proceeding to England he 
made representations to the advisers of Queen Anne, 
who, in 1709, sent him back to Boston with command 
to contrive an expedition against the fortress of 
Canada. A land force from New England was to 
proceed northward by way of the Richelieu, and 
to co-operate with an English fleet on the St. 
Lawrence. 

Once more, however, fortune intervened to save 
Quebec. England long delayed in sending the 
promised fleet, and it was already late autumn 
before the colonial forces were ready to set out. 
While Colonel Nicholson, its leader, perceived the 
hopelessness of so unseasonable an assault upon 
the city, he was yet unwilling to remain inactive. 
Moreover, Acadia lay close by, and the strong- 
hold of Port Royal challenged his arms. He 
determined on its subjection. The brave high- 



lyS OLD QUEBEC chap. 

spirited Subercase^ was commandant of the town, 
and although his garrison was ill-provisioned and 
almost destitute of ammunition, the fort was de- 
fended with the utmost boldness against the over- 
whelming force of the besiegers. Subercase saw 
the hopelessness of his situation from the first, but 
in the end his invincible courage secured an honour- 
able capitulation, and, with a pomp and circumstance 
contrasting strangely with their starved faces and 
ragged uniforms, the little garrison of Port Royal 
marched proudly out of the fort. Nicholson took 
possession of the stronghold and changed its name 
to Annapolis in honour of the British sovereign. 
So fell the first of these fortresses, which were the 
counters in that long game played on the chess- 
board of a continent. 

The capture of Port Royal strengthened the 
determination of the English colonists to drive the 
French out of Canada by destroying their grim 
stronghold upon the St. Lawrence. The home 
government fell in readily with the project, and 
despatched seven regiments of the line, fresh from 
Marlborough's campaigns, together with a fleet 
of fifteen warships under Admiral Sir Hovenden 
Walker. This powerful auxiliary to the strength of 
the colonies arrived duly at Boston, where the details 

1 This was the officer who, years before, had striven to rescue the victims of 
the massacre of Lachine. 



X BORDER WARFARE 179 

of the invasion of Canada were arranged ; and when 
at length all was ready, the Enghsh admiral sailed 
from Boston for the St. Lawrence, Nicholson at the 
same time setting out overland for Montreal with a 
force of twelve thousand men. 

In the meanwhile Vaudreuil had succeeded De 
Callieres as Governor at Quebec, a post which long 
military experience in Canada fitted him to hold in 
the warfare now enveloping New France. At this 
time the total population of the country was not 
much more than fifteen thousand souls, and of fight- 
ing men — those whose ages ranged from fifteen years 
to sixty — Montreal possessed twelve hundred, Three 
Rivers four hundred, and the district of Quebec 
twenty-two hundred. On the other hand, the popu- 
lation of the New England colonies was something 
over one hundred thousand, the colony of New York 
alone twice outnumbering New France. 

Such disparity in the populations of the warring 
colonies was, however, somewhat discounted by 
another consideration ; for while the power of New 
France was well organised and capable of skilful 
direction, the English colonists could carry out no 
enterprise with the undisciplined soldiery at their 
disposal. This explains why the French were able 
to survive for more than half a century the attacks 
of antagonists richer, more numerous, and not less 
valorous than themselves. It further shows why, 



i8o OLD QUEBEC chap. 

throughout their continuous border warfare, the 
more audacious and better-trained soldiery of New 
France triumphed so often over the raw levies of 
Connecticut and New York. 

Sir Hovenden Walker's armada set -sail from 
Boston harbour on the 30th of July, 171 1, fore- 
doomed, through the incapacity of its leader, to the 
most ignominious failure yet befalling any expedition 
against Quebec. By reason of his former mission to 
Canada, Colonel Vetch had been commanded to 
accompany the fleet, and his Journal of a Voyage 
Designed to ^ebec furnishes the mournful details 
of this ill-fated enterprise. 

By the Admiral's direction, Vetch was on board 
the Sapphire^ the smallest of the frigates, with 
orders to pick out the safe channel for the rest of the 
fleet ; and although but a landsman, he did his best 
to act as a pilot. All went well until they reached 
the wide mouth of the St. Lawrence. There, 
instead of depending upon one of the smaller 
ships to lead the way, the Admiral imprudently 
sailed with his flag-ship in the van. By a singular 
want of judgment, moreover, he chose to follow the 
channel north of the Island of Anticosti. 

In the fairest of weathers this reef-strewn passage 
is full of peril, and a dense fog enveloped the fleet on 
that disastrous August evening. Although advised 



BORDER WARFARE 



i8i 



to anchor until the fog should lift, the Admiral 
scoffed at fear. Driven by a whistling wind, the 
ships of the line leaped forward, shaping a course 
north-north-west, until suddenly the sound of 
breakers burst upon them ; and as if in relentless 
mockery, the rising moon lit up the angry reefs of 
Egg Island. Helms were put hard down, and the 
Admiral's vessel swung round to the wind ; but eight 
of the tall battleships were too late to avoid their 
doom. Eight hundred and eighty-four persons were 
drowned, thirty-four of these being women. 

A council of war was held three days later, but 
instead of pressing on up the river with the rest of 
the ships. Sir Hovenden Walker and Brigadier Hill,^ 
the commander of the forces, decided to abandon the 
expedition. The Sapphire was despatched to Boston 
to recall the land force ; and on the shores of Lake 
Champlain these inglorious orders overtook the 
sturdy Nicholson, who regretfully led his column 
back to Albany. 

Meanwhile, Quebec had awaited this her third 
siege in a fever of anxiety. Vaudreuil had disposed 
a thousand men, under De Ramezay, at the new stone 
fort at Chambly to check the invasion by land, and 
strengthened the city with all available forces, regular 
and irregular. The habitants of the long Cote de 

1 Brigadier John Hill was the brother of Mrs. Masham, Queen Anne's favourite, 
to whom, and not to his merit, he owed his appointment. 



i82 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

Beaupre had hidden away their goods, and flocked 
within the walls of the city with all the provisions 
they could transport. Prayers for deliverance rose 
unceasingly from the altars of the churches and 
convents, while the nuns devoted themselves to a 
nine days' Mass at Notre Dame de Pitie. 

Upon this anxiety came the tidings of the wreck 
at Egg Island. Once more Providence had inter- 
vened to save them, and Quebec was delirious with 
joy. Every belfry in New France pealed forth its 
hymn of thanksgiving. The little church on the 
Lower Town market-place changed its name from 
Notre Dame de la Vktoire to Notre Dame des Vic- 
toires, and the citizens added a portico in token of 
their exultation and gratitude. 

The Treaty of Utrecht in 17 13, which brought 
the war of the Spanish succession to a close, 
deprived France of many of her American posses- 
sions. Chief of these were Acadia, Newfoundland, 
and the Hudson's Bay Territory, all of which were 
now ceded to England. In the Gulf of St. Lawrence, 
France retained only the Isle Royale, Isle of St. John,^ 
and the two tiny rocks of St. Pierre and Miquelon. 
New France was, however, unwilling to give up her 
hold on the Atlantic seaboard, and procured a grant 
of thirty million francs from the home government 

1 Now called Cape Breton and Prince Edward Island respectively. 



X BORDER WARFARE 183 

to build the fortress of Louisbourg at the entrance to 
the river St. Lawrence. Vauban, the great French 
engineer, drew the plans of that vast fortification on 
the rocky headland of Cape Breton, which was 
destined to play so important a part in the final storm 
then gathering over the American continent. 

In the meantime New France had entered upon a 
season of unexpected peace — unexpected because 
for at least two generations the conflict with the 
English colonists had been so continuous that Quebec 
had almost come to regard warfare as her normal 
state. The respite following upon the Treaty of 
Utrecht was the more welcome ; and in that breath- 
ing space of almost thirty years it seemed as if a 
real prosperity had at last visited the St. Lawrence. 
The cultivation of flax and hemp and the weaving of 
cloth, which had been but a feeble industry since the 
days of Talon, now assumed real importance. Furs 
were still the main resource of the colony ; but grain, 
fish, oil, and leather also found their way to France 
in increasing quantities. Quebec became the centre 
of a considerable shipping trade, and sea-going vessels 
were launched from the stocks on the bank of the 
little St. Charles. 

Moreover, the energies of the people presently 
found another and alluring field. In 17 16 a 
missionary to the Sault Indians discovered the 
gensing root, which, as a medical drug, was quoted 



i84 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

in European markets at its weight in silver. At 
first its price in Quebec was only forty sols per 
pound, but when the people saw its value 
rising to almost as many Uvres^ the rush of 
searchers to the woods left all other industries at a 
standstill. Agriculture furnished a slow road to 
wealth by comparison with the hunt of the gensing 
plant, and Quebec passed through the fever of a 
modern gold-rush. Natural and economic conditions, 
however, had provided their own remedy ; and in 
time the glut of the market and the extirpation of 
the gensing plant sent the feverish botanists back to 
their wonted pursuits. Then ensued a period of 
peace and quiet progress, of patriotic co-operation of 
the officials and the people for the good of the land. 
In 1725 the long and beneficent rule of the first 
Vaudreuil came to an end, and the Marquis de 
Beauharnois succeeded to the governorship of 
Quebec. The features of this and the succeeding 
administrations were the further expansion westward 
of New France and the construction of that chain of 
forts by which she sought finally to fasten her grip 
upon the continent. One by one these fortresses 
rose up in the far wilderness to hem in the English 
between the sea and the Alleghanies, and one by one 
they were demolished, as England and her colonies 
slowly rolled down the curtain on the drama of 
French dominion in North America. 



X • BORDER WARFARE 185 

Nearer home, also, that is to say, nearer to Quebec, 
French enterprise had taken the form of building 
and manning forts ; and as the fate of these scattered 
strongholds closely affects the story of Quebec, a 
brief outline of their location is here given. 

Port Royal had passed for ever out of French 
hands, and to take its place the giant bastions of 
Louisbourg had risen on a ridge of rock which made 
one arm of Gabarus Bay. On the river Missaguash, 
which the French claimed to mark the northern 
boundary of English Acadia, stood Fort Beausejour. 
Chambly, Sorel, and St. Therese, on the Richelieu, 
were Indian forts of old foundation ; and as a further 
defence against the English, Beauharnois built Crown 
Point at the narrows of Lake Champlain. The 
stronghold of Carillon was situated a few miles 
beyond. On the Alleghany river. Forts Venango 
and Le Boeuf barred the westward growth of 
Pennsylvania ; and Fort Duquesne, begun as an 
English fort by the Ohio Company, guarded the 
junction of the Alleghany and the Monongahela. 
Fort Niagara, near one end of Lake Ontario, and 
Fort Frontenac at the other, were also to figure in 
the closing stages of the conflict. 

The exploit of the Sieur de la Verendrye, which 
marked this period, was perhaps the most picturesque 
achievement Quebec had witnessed since the days of 
La Salle. In the spring of 1731, La Verendrye, 



i86 OLD QUEBEC chap, x 

with his three sons and a handful of adventurous 
coureurs de bois, set off from the trading post of 
MichiUimackinac to take possession of the West. 
By a long succession of paddles and portages, La 
Verendrye came to the Lake of the Woods. Then, 
threading his way through its myriad islands, he 
found and followed a wild stream which bore him 
down to Lake Winnipeg. From here he passed 
into the Red River, and at its junction with the 
Assiniboine built Fort Rouge. From this base 
the bold explorers made their way as far north as 
the forks of the Saskatchewan ; and by 1743 the 
distant peaks of the Rocky Mountains had re- 
warded the vision of a younger La Verendrye. To 
no avail : for this wide dominion was destined to 
pass to hands firmer to hold, if slower to acquire. 




j?jKaz/i?, pt.nx^' 






CHAPTER XI 

THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

The growing power of England, on the sea, in 
America, and in India, was only equalled by the 
increasing jealousy of the Catholic nations of Eu- 
rope, and especially of her ancient rival France. The 
question of the Austrian succession, in which these 
two conspicuous opposites stood for and against 
Maria Theresa, supplied a pretext for war ; yet it 
hardly concealed the real purpose of each power to 
destroy the other ; and the battles of Fontenoy, 
NoUwitz, and Dettingen, though fought in the 
heart of Europe, were as decisive for an Eastern and 
a Western empire as was the warfare on the frontiers 
of India, or the sullen conflict in the Ohio valley. 

Across the Atlantic, France, as usual, dealt the 
first blow. With a thousand soldiers from Louis- 
bourg, Du Vivier assailed Annapolis Royal ; but 
neither by investment nor assault could the French 
overcome the small but indomitable garrison ; and 
at length, after weeks of useless cannonade, the 

187 



i88 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

besiegers stole back to their stronghold in Cape 
Breton. This gallant repulse of a desperate attempt 
to regain Acadia prompted New England to an 
expedition against the strong fortress of Louisbourg 
— the standing menace to peaceful colonial develop- 
ment. Were it but reduced, the English seaboard 
would be henceforth free from all danger of French 
attack. 

Such large considerations fired the English colo- 
nists with an enthusiasm which took little thought 
for the grave dangers attending such an enterprise. 
Excepting the citadel of Quebec itself, there was no 
fortress on the American continent to compare in 
strength with Louisbourg. Built on a narrow rocky 
cape which projected out into the Atlantic, the ocean 
girded it on three sides, and on the fourth side a morass 
made it difficult of approach. A powerful fortifica- 
tion, known as the Island Battery, protected the 
mouth of the harbour, and the guns of Grand Bat- 
tery frowned over the inner basin. The French 
garrison numbered thirteen hundred chosen men. 
Such was the fortress which Governor Shirley of 
Massachusetts planned to destroy, and against which 
the daring Pepperell presently threw the ill-trained 
levies of New England. 

One night, when the citadel of Louisbourg was 
brilliant with festivity, the colonists dancing and 
all unconscious of danger, a hundred transports 



XI 



BEGINNING OF THE END 



189 



from New England entered Gabarus Bay. The 
citizens would have held it a foolish dream that 
any attempt could be made to capture Louisbourg, 
but there, in the early morning of April 30th, 1745, 
Pepperell's army was disembarking before their eyes, 
and in the offing Commodore Warren, with four 
British battleships, stood blockading the harbour. 




LIEUT.-GENERAL SIR WILLIAM PEPPERELL, BART. 

The bells of the martial little town rang madly in 
alarm, and the booming of cannon at once brought 
the dismayed citizens to the ramparts. 

Without loss of time Pepperell began to make his 
way across the marshes lying between his camp and 
Louisbourg, erecting batteries as he went to answer 
the cannonade of the garrison. Each morning saw 
the intrepid besiegers closer to the walls, having 



I90 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

advanced their intrenchments under cover of the 
darkness. A daring assault had meanwhile carried 
the grand battery, and from a salient post on Light- 
house Point Pepperell's guns were soon able to 
silence the island redoubt at the mouth of the 
harbour. The battle swayed from side to side as 
the desperate garrison made a sortie, or the besiegers 
impetuously rushed to the attack. But even the 
walls of Louisbourg could not for long withstand 
that furious and ceaseless cannonade, which shattered 
the heaviest bastions ; and when the gallant fort 
could hold out no longer, a white flag fluttered from 
the broken ramparts, and the brave Duchambon, his 
veteran garrison decimated, marched out with the 
honours of war. 

The loss of Louisbourg was the severest blow yet 
sustained by New France, and without delay a 
powerful expedition was organised to recapture the 
fortress and take revenge upon the enemy. No such 
formidable and menacing armada had ever left the 
shores of France as now sailed out of Rochelle, 
under command of the Due d'Anville. Thirty-nine 
ships of the line convoyed transports bearing a 
veteran army westward ; and the English colonists 
trembled for its coming. However, the advance 
tidings of this terrible flotilla were all that reached 
the New World ; for hardly had D'Anville lost sight 
of the French coast before two of his ships fell a prey 



XI BEGINNING OF THE END 191 

to British gunboats, and a succession of storms 
scattered the rest in all directions. 

At length, after weeks of delay, the surviving 
vessels struggled one by one into the harbour of 
Chedabucto. In deadly dejection, D'Anville had suc- 
cumbed to apoplexy ; moreover, his successor, the 
Admiral D'Estournelle, had committed suicide ; and 
the new commander was La Jonquiere, a distinguished 
naval officer, then on his way to Quebec to assume the 
office of Governor-General. His sorry fleet notwith- 
standing, La Jonquiere decided to strike a blow at 
Annapolis. Thither he shaped his course; but again 
a violent storm overtook them on the way, and the 
ships, unable to weather the tempest, steered straight 
for France once more. 

Even in the face of these dark disasters France 
was unwilling to abandon Louisbourg, and in 1747 
another powerful naval force under La Jonquiere set 
out for Acadia. Like its magnificent but hapless 
predecessor, this fleet had hardly cleared the Bay of 
Biscay before it came to grief. Falling in with a 
British squadron under Admiral Anson off Cape 
Finisterre, it was almost totally destroyed. 

In other quarters, however, France had received 
amends from fortune, and in the following year 
the European powers signed the Treaty of Aix- 
la-Chapelle, Louisbourg being restored to France in 
exchange for the Indian province of Madras, which 



192 OLD QUEBEC chap, xi 

had passed from English hands during the war. To 
New England, whose blood and valour had achieved 
the demolition of the frowning fortress, this restitution 
was a sorrowful blow. But only ten years were to 
pass before this menace was removed for ever. 

La Jonquiere, Governor-designate of Quebec, 
had been taken prisoner at the naval battle of 
Finisterre ; and, pending his release, the Marquis de 
la Galissoniere presided over the fortunes, or mis- 
fortunes, of New France, The indefiniteness of the 
western boundary between French and English terri- 
tory was perhaps the chief source of his perplexity ; 
and to put an end to persistent English encroachments 
in the valley of the Ohio, Galissoniere sent Celoron 
de Bienville, a colonial captain, to establish a formal 
boundary line. This expedition nominally accom- 
plished its purpose ; but, judging from the report 
submitted to the Governor of Quebec, its chief result 
was a painful revelation. It was shown that, in spite 
of an expensive chain of fortified posts, the great 
West was fast slipping from the martial grasp of New 
France, and passing under the stronger influence of 
English trade. The huge, unwieldy empire was 
clearly falling to pieces, and La Jonquiere's arrival 
in Quebec brought no improvement to the situation. 
Of high merit as a naval oflicer, the new Governor 
had less distinction in morals, and he had frankly come 
to Canada to mend his fortune. His administration 




BIENVILLE 

(Governor of Louisiana, 1732) 



CHAP. XI BEGINNING OF THE END 195 

marks the advent of that official robbery which dis- 
graced Quebec and sapped the remaining vitality of 
the country. Though the country had prospered 
materially under Vaudreuil, the subsequent war had 
stopped all progress, and the people were dreaming 
of empire when they needed bread. 

To-day, walking down Palace Hill and turning 
near the bottom into the Rue St. Vallier, you will find 
yourself close to the site of the ancient intendancy, 
where the official ruin of New France began. Here 
it was that Francois Bigot, the evil genius of Quebec, 
held corrupt sway in the guise of a royal minister. 
Here stood, in mordant comment, the Palais de 
Justice, so wickedly profaned by the last of the 
intendants. Through several fires and two sieges 
of later generations parts of this ancient structure 
persisted in surviving. Only a few years ago the 
heavier timber still hanging together was called 
"The King's Wood-yard." But nothing now 
remains of it, and imagination only summons the 
haunting spirit of this creature of La Pompadour, 
whose mischievous influence lost Louis XV. his 
colonial empire, and whose infamies sealed the fate 
of the Bourbons. 

Fran9ois Bigot arrived at Quebec in 1748, a year 
in which the fortunes of New France had reached so 
low an ebb that nothing but the most loyal adminis- 
tration might now save her. Even then a strong 



196 OLD QUEBEC chap, xi 

honest man might possibly have weathered the storm 
aheady lowering over this New World dominion ; 
but, with pitiable perverseness, every trait in Bigot's 
character helped it on to ruin. In private life vain, 
selfish, heartless, extravagant to the point of folly ; in 
public life mercenary and venal beyond shame — such 
were the characteristics of the man whom Louis's 
favourite chose to be civil administrator at Quebec, 
where the patriotic faith and labour of a gallant and 
high-hearted people were rewarded by plunder, mis- 
rule, and that neglect which gave them at last into 
the hands of the conqueror. 

On his arrival, the Intendant speedily surrounded 
himself by sycophants and knaves who joined him 
in the reckless pursuit of pleasure, and became ready 
instruments to further his darker designs. A man 
of ability, adroitness, and culture. Bigot might have 
won public favour, but his habits instantly estranged 
the better people of the colony. The honnetes gens^ 
a party which included the great Montcalm, the brave 
Bougainville, La Corne de St. Luc, M. de Levis, and 
M. de Saint-Ours, would have nothing to do with 
him, and he was left in the hands of servile flatterers, 
ready enough to serve him. Deschenaux, his 
fidus Achates^ was a cobbler's son, whom experi- 
ence alone had educated and fate and unscrupulous- 
ness had advanced. Cadet, his commissary-general, 
was the gross son of a butcher, and had spent his 




DE BOUGAINVILLE 

(General under Montcalm, 1759) 



cHAP.xi BEGINNING OF THE END 199 

dissatisfied youth in the pasture-fields of Charles- 
bourg. Hughes Pean was the town major of 
Quebec, but his chief hold on Bigot lay in the beauty 
of his wife, the charming Angelique des Meloises. 
This woman, whose beauty, wit, and diablerie are a 
subject of popular tradition, possessed a fascination 
which gave her an influence at the intendancy analo- 
gous to that exerted at Versailles by her notorious 
contemporary, La Pompadour. 

Ruled by this coterie of dark spirits, Quebec 
became the scene of a profligacy unparalleled in her 
history. The Palace, instead of being a hall of jus- 
tice, was the abode of debauchery and gambling ; and 
the mad revellers, whom a cynical fate had placed 
at the head of afi^airs, allowed the ship of state to drift 
upon the rocks. Even the fine palace within the 
city gave too little scope for the diversion of the 
Intendant and his confederates, and, accordingly, a 
rustic chateau was built near the high hill of Charles- 
bourg. Here they paused when tired of the chase, 
and the revels of the mysterious Maison de la 
Montague added sad but vivid colouring to the 
closing decade of French rule. To-day there is an 
air of pathetic interest about the picturesque ruin of 
Chateau Bigot. The high walls are covered with 
ivy, and its graded walks and beds of flowers have 
disappeared long since. The immense thickness 
of the walls has enabled " Beaumanoir " to elude 



200 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

destroying Time, but only enough now remains to 
suggest the hapless revels of a bygone day. 

These things, however, are of the private sins of 
Bigot and his entourage. Their public malefactions 
were more flagrant. The Intendant's salary could 
by no means meet his appalling extravagances, and 
he therefore robbed the country and the King by 
falsifying official accounts as they passed through his 
hands. As Intendant it was his duty to supply 
the needs of those chains of forts by which France 
held her vast dominion ; but while he shamelessly 
neglected these outposts, he did not fail to debit 
the royal treasury for supplies which were never 
forwarded. In this way he and his intriguing friends 
enriched themselves. They presently adopted another 
and more contemptible device. Constant hostility 
towards the British had deprived the farms of their 
cultivators, and the supply of wheat was greatly 
reduced throughout the colony. Every day the land 
grew more distressed, and it was not difficult to 
foresee a time of famine. Not far from Le Palais 
stood a huge building which went by the name of 
the King's Storehouse, and the Intendant resolved to 
fill this with wheat. He had an ancient precedent 
in Egyptian history, but his motive was not that of 
provident Joseph. Fixing the price of grain by an 
edict, and imposing penalties on those who refused to 
sell, his agents went through the country gathering 



XI 



BEGINNING OF THE END 201 



up maize and wheat ; and when famine came at 
length, the starving people flocked to the warehouse 
in Lower Town, and were compelled to buy back 
their grain at exorbitant prices. They called this 
warehouse La Friponne — the Cheat — and they cursed 
the name of Bigot who had so deceived them. 
The interesting legend of Le Chien d'Or has its 




RUINS OF CHATEAU BIGOT 



origin in the mercenary practices of this last Intendant 
of Quebec. Among the merchants of the city was 
one Nicholas Jaquin, dit Philibert, whose warehouse 
stood at the top of Mountain Hill, on the site of 
the present Post-Office. Philibert was one of the 
honnetes gens, and he devoted his wealth and energy 
to a commercial battle with La Friponne, determined 
to supply the people with food at low prices. The 
enmity between Philibert and the Intendant was 



CHAP. 



202 OLD QUEBEC 

common talk, and over his doorway the merchant 
had hung, beneath the figure of a dog in bas-relief, 
the following whimsical quatrain : — 




j^ '-'/'^ ■ %:^t 



LE CHIEN I) OK 



**Je suis un chien qui ronge I'os, 
En le rongeant je prends mon repos; 
Un jour viendra, qui n'est pas venu. 
Que je mordrai qui m'aura mordu." 

The bitter conflict continued until Philibert was 
murdered in the street. The escape of the assassin 
was well contrived ; but there was no avoiding the 
vengeance of Philibert's son, who, after years of 
searching, struck down his father's slayer in far-off 
Pondicherry. 



Meanwhile the walls and bastions of Louisbourg 



XI BEGINNING OF THE END 203 

were rising stronger than ever upon their old foun- 
dations, and the French Acadians, relying upon the 
Cape Breton stronghold and the nearer fortress of 
Beausejour, grew more and more restless beneath the 
English yoke. ByfoundingHalifaxin 1749, England 
had taken faster hold upon the peninsula, and through 
every possible means she had endeavoured to secure 
the true allegiance of her Acadian subjects. In 
spite of all these efforts, however, Acadia was sown 
with treason, and when at last disloyalty became 
intolerable and dangerous, the innocent as well as the 
guilty must reap the harvest of tears and bitterness. 
There could only be one end to it all ; and however 
hard the fate, the land of Acadia now ceased to be 
the home of its makers, who had been goaded and 
inveigled into covert rebellion and treason. 

"This is the forest primeval,; but where are the hearts that be- 
neath it 

Leaped lilie the roe, when he hears in the woodland the voice of 
the huntsman ? 

Where is the thatch-roofed village, the home of Acadian 
farrhers. 

Men whose lives glided on like rivers that water the woodlands. 

Darkened by shadows of earth, but reflecting an image of 
heaven ? 

Waste are those pleasant farms, and the farmers for ever de- 
parted ! 

Scattered like dust and leaves, when the mighty blasts of 
October 



204 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

Seize them, and whirl them aloft, and sprinkle them far o'er the 

ocean — 
Nought but tradition remains of the beautiful village of Grand 

Pre." 

So sang Longfellow in his sorrowful tale of 
Evangeline ; and the cold page of history is hardly 
less mournful. 

The 5th of September, 1755, was a day memorable 
alike to the Acadians and to those whose bitter duty 
it was to carry out King George's orders for their 
expulsion from the peninsula. At three o'clock in 
the afternoon the peasants of Grand Pre, Piziquid, 
Chipody, and the other parishes assembled in their 
chapels to listen to a royal proclamation declar- 
ing their lands and houses forfeited to the Crown, 
and themselves condemned to exile. The scenes 
following this unexpected order wrung the hearts of 
the rugged soldiers who were sent to execute the 
sentence. Reluctantly and forbearingly they carried 
out the royal command, and soon six thousand 
Acadians, who had persistently refused allegiance to 
the English in the vain belief that New France would 
regain the peninsula, found themselves transported 
to the English colonies farther south. Those who 
swore allegiance were left undisturbed; while many, 
escaping both deportation and the oath of subjection, 
fled to Quebec. These were doomed, however, to 
misery far greater than that of their comrades who 



XI BEGINNING OF THE END 205 

were set down as strangers among the English 
colonists. Quebec, which had fomented and abetted 
their treason, now declined to share the burden of 
their misfortune. 

The years of Bigot's regime were the lean years of 
the city, and this influx of a thousand new starvelings 
was a most unwelcome addition to the population. 
Yet even the unfavourable circumstances of the time 
cannot justify the official neglect and the cruel inhospi- 
tality with which the miserable exiles were received 
in the capital of New France. " In vain," says a 
chronicler, " they asked that the promises they had 
received should be kept, and they pleaded the sacrifices 
they had made for France. All was useless. The 
former necessity for their services had passed away. 
They were looked upon as a troublesome people, and 
if they received assistance they were made to feel that 
it was only granted out of pity. They were almost 
reduced to die of famine. The little food they 
obtained, its bad quality, their natural want of 
cleanliness, their grief, and their idleness caused 
the death of many. They were forced to eat boiled 
leather during the greater part of the winter, and to 
wait for spring in the hope that their condition would 
be bettered. On this point they were deceived." ^ 

" To supplement a miserable daily ration of four 
ounces of bread and horseflesh," says another writer^ 

1 Archives of Nova Scotia. 



2o6 OLD QUEBEC chap, xi 

" they were obliged to seek scraps in the gutters ; 
and those who survived starvation were brought low 
with a virulent smallpox, which carried off whole 
families in its loathsome tumbril." 

In the meantime, a series of events had happened 
in the Ohio valley which set the New World on fire. 
Celoron de Bienville had indeed staked out his boun- 
dary line, but the new Governor of Quebec, the Mar- 
quis Duquesne, saw clearly that a line of bayonets 
was the only limit which English expansionists would 
respect. Accordingly, a strong French force marched 
into the troublesome valley, and established them- 
selves at a new post called Fort Le Boeuf. 

The report of this incursion was evil news for 
Governor Dinwiddle of Virginia, the most diligent 
and watchful of the thirteen governors of the Eng- 
lish colonies. Having never ceased to regard Lake 
Erie as a northern boundary of British territory, 
this latest invasion on the part of the French was to 
him beyond endurance, and he forthwith despatched 
the Adjutant-General of the Virginia Militia to de- 
liver England's protest to the French commander. 
The messenger was a tall handsome youth of twenty- 
one, and the message was the first important com- 
mission of George Washington. 

In spite of the studied courtesy of his reception 
by Legardeur de Saint-Pierre, the English envoy 



CHAP. XI BEGINNING OF THE END 209 

saw the hopelessness of his errand, and hastened back 
to Williamsburg with his report. Dinwiddie there- 
upon resolved to meet force with force. Although 



..^l!^', 




MAJOR-GENERAL SIR ISAAC BARRE 

(Paymaster of Wolfe's Forces) 



he scarcely persuaded the disunited colonies to take 
a serious view of the French invasion, he was pres- 
ently able to send George Washington back again 
into the Ohio valley at the head of a company of 



2IO OLD QUEBEC chap. 

regulars and three hundred soldiers of the Old 
Dominion. 

Meanwhile the French had seized an English 
trading-post at the junction of the Ohio and 
Monongahela rivers, and named it Fort Duquesne. 
This post was Washington's immediate objective, 
and as he approached it his advance-guard met 
a French reconnoitring party under Jumonville, 
sent, it is alleged, by the commandant of Fort 
Duquesne to warn the Virginians off French soil. 
The precise purpose served by this handful of 
Frenchmen has never, however, been fully deter- 
mined. Jumonville's movements are certainly hard 
to reconcile with the theory of a peaceful mission, 
and to Major Washington they certainly appeared 
hostile. In the sharp fight which followed, Jumon- 
ville and nine others were killed, while of the 
remaining twenty-three only one escaped. By the 
English, the affair was described as a successful 
skirmish, by the French as the " Assassinat de 
Jumonville" ; for all it meant precipitation of the 
death-struggle for North America. 

Anticipating the French attack, Washington fell 
back upon Great Meadows, and the hasty and inad- 
equate intrenchments which he there threw up re- 
ceived the name of Fort Necessity. Here he awaited 
an assault with a short supply of ammunition and 
almost no provisions. Nor was his patience long 



XI BEGINNING OF THE END 211 

tried ; for nine hundred Frenchmen under Coulon de 
Villiers, brother of the unfortunate Jumonville, were 
already marching against him through the woods. 
Wishing to entice them to an immediate attack, 
Washington had arrayed his men on the open meadow 
before the fort ; but as his opponent decHned to be 
drawn from the cover of the surrounding hills, the 
Virginians also took shelter in their shallow in- 
trenchments. A blind fusillade now began in torrents 
of rain and was maintained for nine hours, punctuated 
by the booming of a few light swivel guns upon the 
ramparts. 

At nightfall, however, the French proposed a 
parley, and having weighed the chances of his 
little army against such overwhelming numbers, 
Washington agreed to capitulate. Next day the 
English marched out of Fort Necessity with beating 
drums and flying colours ; but heart-sick and weary 
they toiled back over the mountains to Virginia, 
leaving the valley of the Ohio in the full possession 
of the enemy. Moreover, the defeat at Fort 
Necessity was a double blow, for it threw the fickle 
Indians back into the arms of the French, a con- 
sideration of great weight in border warfare. 

In Europe the rival powers were still maintaining 
the semblance of peace, while yet secretly abetting 
the open enmity of their American colonies. The 
despatch of Major-General Braddock with two 



212 OLD QUEBEC 



CHAP. 



regiments of the line, although accounted for by 
the lips of diplomacy, was, with equally pacific assur- 
ances, promptly checkmated by France. Eighteen 
ships of war, carrying the six battahons of La Reine, 
Bourgogne, Languedoc, Guienne, Artois, and Beam, 
and convoyed by an auxiliary squadron of nine 
battleships, were hurried off to New France under 
the joint command of Baron Dieskau and the 
Marquis de Vaudreuil, the new Governor of Quebec. 
As in the case of former expeditions on so large a 
scale, some of the vessels failed to reach their 
destination, and two frigates fell into the hands of 
Admiral Boscawen, who had secret orders to inter- 
cept this French flotilla. 

Braddock and his thousand regulars were now 
regarded as the salvation of the English colonies, 
whose representatives had at last agreed upon a 
scheme for defending their frontiers. The English 
general, it was decided, should destroy Fort 
Duquesne, Governor Shirley attacking the French 
fort of Niagara ; while Colonel William John- 
son, a settler of the Upper Hudson, and chiefly 
remarkable for his influence with the Mohawks, was 
to proceed against Crown Point. None of these 
intentions was fulfilled in its entirety, although 
Johnson, in the course of his operations in the 
district of Lake Champlain, was able to inflict a 
crushing defeat upon the French under Dieskau, 



XI BEGINNING OF THE END 213 

and on the scene of his triumph to erect Fort 
William Henry. 

The feature of the summer campaign of 1755 
was, however, the fate of Braddock and his 




SIR HUGH I'AIlIsl'l, BART. 

(Raised first English flag over Quebec, 1759) 

column. Setting out from Fort Cumberland on the 
Potomac, the English General made his way north- 
westward at the head of twenty-two hundred 
men, four hundred and fifty of these being veteran 
Virginians under the command of Colonel George 
Washington. But the overweening Braddock con- 



214 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

sidered these raw colonials to be the least effective 
of his troops. From the first the progress of this 
imposing force was painfully slow. " Instead of 
pushing on with vigour without regarding a little 
rough road," writes George Washington, " we were 
halted to level every mole-hill, and compelled to 
erect bridges over every brook, by which means we 
were four days in getting twelve miles." Declining 
colonial advice, Braddock preferred to regulate his 
motions by the text-book of war ; and as he knew 
nothing of the country through which he made 
his way, and still less of the tactics of his foe, the 
sequel was almost inevitable. 

" It was the loth of June," says Parkman, " before 
the army was well on its march. Three hundred 
axemen led the way, to cut and clear the road ; 
and the long train of pack-horses, waggons, and 
cannon toiled on behind, over the stumps, roots, 
and stones of the narrow track, the regulars and 
provincials marching in the forest close on either 
side. Squads of men were thrown out on the 
flanks, and scouts ranged the woods to guard 
against surprise; for, with all his scorn of Indians 
and Canadians, Braddock did not neglect reason- 
able precautions. Thus, foot by foot, they ad- 
vanced into the waste of lonely mountains that 
divided the streams flowing into the Atlantic from 
those flowing into the Gulf of Mexico — a realm of 



XI BEGINNING OF THE END 215 

forests ancient as the world. The road was but 
twelve feet wide, and the line of march often 
extended four miles. It was like a thin, long, parti- 
coloured snake, red, blue, and brown, trailing slowly 
through the depth of leaves, creeping round in- 
accessible heights, crawling over ridges, moving 
always in dampness and shadow, by rivulets and 
waterfalls, crags and chasms, gorges and shaggy 
steeps. In glimpses only, through jagged boughs and 
flickering leaves, did this wild primeval world reveal 
itself, with its dark green mountains, flecked with 
the morning mist, and its distant peaks pencilled in 
dreamy blue. The army passed the main Alleghany, 
Meadow Mountain, and traversed the funereal 
pine-forest afterwards called the Shadows of 
Death." 1 

Meanwhile, French scouts had brought news of 
the approaching column, and Beaujeu, an officer at 
Fort Duquesne, conceiving the idea of attacking 
Braddock as he came up a deep wooded ravine lying 
about eight miles from the fort, repaired thither 
with a force of nine hundred men, including French 
regulars, Canadians, and Indians. 

The English troops toiled on, and when the 
defenceless vanguard was well advanced up the pass, 
Beaujeu gave the signal which sent down a hail of 
deadly bullets upon them. Still the redcoats held 

^ Parkman, Montcalm and Wolfe, vol. i. chap. vii. 



2i6 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

their ground bravely, firing steady volleys against 
the hidden foe. By this time the main army 
also had entered the pass, only to be thrown into 
instant confusion, their solid ranks offering a target 
to the French sharpshooters. Bewildered by the 
converging fire, the column huddled together at the 
bottom of the pass, while the bullets mowed them 
down pitilessly. The brave but headstrong general 
exhorted them to preserve the order of their ranks, 
and when they would have fled in terror, he beat 
them back into line with his own sword. The 
Virginians alone knew how to avert a massacre, and 
spreading out quickly into skirmish order, they 
took cover behind the trees and rocks to meet their 
wily foe on even terms. But the brave and stubborn 
Braddock was blind to so obvious an expedient, and 
with oaths he ordered the irregulars back into the 
death-line. 

All the long July afternoon the carnage con- 
tinued. Four horses fell dead beneath the indomi- 
table General, and two were killed under the gallant 
Washington who, with his Virginian rangers, 
covered the retreat of Braddock's miserable remnant 
when at last they resolved on flight. Only six 
hundred escaped out of that fatal valley, while the 
General himself, in spite of his command that they 
should leave him where he fell, was borne away 
fatally wounded in the lungs. ^ 



XI BEGINNING OF THE END 217 

So ended the summer campaign of 1755; and 
even Johnson's brilHant success at Fort William 
Henry could not offset the terrible disaster which 
had befallen British arms in the valley of the 
Ohio. 



CHAPTER XII 

LIFE UNDER THE ANCIEN REGIME 

For all its sombre background bright threads run 
through the warp and woof of the ancien regime. From 
Normandy, Brittany, and Perche. they came, these 
simple folk of the St. Lawrence, to brave the dangers 
of an unknown world and wrestle with primeval 
nature for a livelihood. If their hands were empty 
their hearts were full, Gallic optimism and child- 
like faith in their patron saints bringing them 
through untold misfortunes with a prayer or a song 
upon their lips. The savage Indian with his reek- 
ing tomahawk might break through and steal, the 
moth and rust of evil administration might wear 
away the fortunes of New France, yet the habitant 
ever found joy in labour and made light of hard 
circumstance. 

In every language there is a pensive attraction in 
the words " the good old days " ; and even to-day the 
phrase brings a tear to the eye of the French Canadian 
as his mind dwells on the time before the Conquest: 

218 





; t^^-^% 



CHAP. XII THE J NCI EN REGIME 



221 



for while conscious of his growth in freedom and 
wealth, the sentiment for past days and vanished 
glory obscures in his mind the thought of these 
material blessings. Spirits of the ancien regime still 
haunt the dreamy firesides of the Province, yet their 




BARON GRANT 



(Whose family represents the Barony of Longueil, the only existing French Canadian 
Barony of the old regime) 

presence does not impair the loyalty of these 
adopted sons of Britain. 

When Wolfe came to Quebec, the flight of a 
century and a half had transformed Champlain's 
" Habitation " and its clustering huts into the 
strongest and fairest city of the New World. 
Churches, convents, and schools huddled together, 



222 OLD QUEBEC 



CHAP. 



and composed a varied picture upon the uneven 
summit of a towering rock ; cannon thrust their 
black muzzles through the girdling walls of stone; 
and the bastioned citadel rose over all, command- 
ing the river, the city, and the graceful country 
rolling inland from high Cape Diamond. 

Sunshine reflected from the spires and towers of 
the town made a beacon of hope to the peasant as he 
laboured on the seigneuries leagues and leagues away. 
Far down the Cote de Beaupre, beyond the Mont 
Ste. Anne, from the rich farms of Orleans, and 
across on the Levi shore, the glistening hght on the 
city roofs by day, and at night the twinkling candles 
in the windows, were as guiding stars to these 
children in the wilderness. Twice in the early days, 
so their folklore told them, miraculous intervention 
had saved their city from the invader ; and was 
she not impregnable still ? And as he gazed happily 
across the uplands towards his Mecca, the habitant 
could conceive of no power which might prevail 
against her stony ramparts. To this day the 
emblems of their faith abound, scattered along the 
wayside ; and here and there a little wooden cross, 
set on with two or three rough steps, invites the 
wayfarer to pause and pray. Bareheaded, the 
pilgrim waits before the holy symbol to whisper an 
Ave or to tell his beads. Rough bushmen cease 
from riot and laughter, and touch their caps as they 



XII 



THE A NCI EN REGIME 



223 



pass. All down the cotes, these casual shrines 
exhort the simple peasant to his twofold duty — to 
God and to his neighbour. Throughout the river 




BARONESS DE LONGUEIL 

(Of the sole remaining Barony of the old regime) 

parishes the size and richness of the churches con- 
trasts strangely with the poverty of the rough-cast 
cottages, revealing the devout spirit of the villagers, 
to whom the church stands before all else. 

Seven leagues below the city of Quebec is the 



224 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

greatest of all these shrines, U Eglise de la bonne 
Ste. Anne. In the foreground, the wide bosom of 
the St. Lawrence stretches across to the Isle of 
Orleans, while Mont Ste. Anne rises in graceful lines 
upon the flank, making a green background for the 
stone Basilica, which draws nearly two hundred 
thousand pilgrims every year to its healing altars. 
Perhaps, as you enter the village, the rich chimes of 
Ste. Anne are ringing a processional, and the cripples 
are thronging through the pillared vestibule. Some 
of these pious sufferers have come a thousand miles 
to wait, like those in days of old, for the moving of 
the waters. Inside the church, the pillars are covered 
with cast-ofF crutches, which faithful pilgrims leave 
behind when they go forth healed. 

The history of the shrine of Ste. Anne de Beaupre 
goes back almost to the time of Champlain. A 
traditional account of its foundation relates that some 
Breton mariners, being overtaken by a violent storm 
on the St. Lawrence, vowed a sanctuary to Ste. Anne 
if she would but bring them safe to shore. Their 
prayers were heard, and forthwith they raised a little 
wooden chapel at Petit-Cap, seven leagues below 
Quebec. History, however, gives 1658 as the date 
of the first chapel of Ste. Anne ; and it was while 
engaged in its construction that Louis Guimont 
became the subject of the first miraculous cure. 
Other cures rapidly followed, and soon the shrine 



XII 



THE ANCIEN REGIME 



225 



became renowned for its miracles. The Marquis de 
Tracy made two pilgrimages ; and Anne of Austria, 
the mother of Louis XIV., accorded her patronage, 
sending to the little chapel a vestment embroidered 
by herself. 

During two and a half centuries the church of 



,^^,MW CnS^'TOAl 







UPPER TOWN MARKET TO-DAY 



Ste. Anne has been several times rebuilt. The 
present imposing structure dates from 1886, and has 
been raised by the Pope to the rank of a Basilica 
Minor. Beaupre has become the Lourdes of the 
New World, where the halt, the maimed, the sick, 
and the blind piously contend together in effort to 
reach the healing shrine. 

In the old days once or twice a week, according 
to the season and the distance of the city, the peas- 
s 



226 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

ant made his way to Quebec, to take up his stand 
on the market-place, and sell his produce to the 
townspeople. The practice still survives, and on a 
Saturday half the women of Upper Town busily 
drive their bargains outside St. John's Gate, while at 
the river's brink Champlain Market is equally alive. 

When the ancient Seigneur came to town his 
sword was upon his thigh, and he wore his smartest 
toilet of peruke, velvet, and lace. The Chateau upon 
the cliff was his Versailles, and hither came the 
quality of the district to pay their court and attend 
the receptions of the Governor. The Seigneur's 
wife was gowned according to the latest intelligence 
from Paris, with coiffe poudre, court-plaster, ribbons, 
and fan. She could curtsey with fine grace and 
dance the stately minuet; and her sprightly conver- 
sation was the amazement of those visitors who have 
recorded their impressions of Quebec. La Potherie, 
in 1698, and Charlevoix, in 1720, both remarked 
upon the purity of the French language as spoken 
in these salons of the far-distant West. 

In spite of clerical anathema, the first ball in 
Canada was given at Fort St. Louisas early as 1646, 
and from that time forward social life at Quebec 
steadily progressed. The Marquis de Tracy with his 
suite of nobles and the regiment of Carignan-Salieres 
brought unwonted lustre to the remote court ; and 
when a native order of noblesse was founded a few 



XII 



THE A NCI EN REGIME 



11J 



years later, the Chateau on the St. Lawrence reflected 
the elegance and gaiety of France itself. 

The account of Madame de Vaudreuil's reception 
at Versailles in 1709, or the Due de Saint-Simon's 
comment upon that lady's wit and deportment, 
affords a high certificate of the savoir vivre of the 
old fortress town ; and the letters of the Marquis de 




NEW ST. JOHN S GATE 



Montcalm, keen connoisseur of social arts, show 
that the drawing-rooms of the Rue du Parloir were 
far from uncongenial. Moreover, the fascinating 
Angelique des Meloises was something more in the 
history of New France than the prototype of the 
heroine in Le Chien d'Or. 

Towards the close of the French period Quebec 
had a population of about seven thousand, of whom 
more than half lived in the Lower Town. Here, 



228 OLD QUEBEC chap, xii 

on the narrow strand beneath the cliff, the tenements 
stood in irregular groups, parted by winding streets. 
Up the hill, too, these tortuous pathways ran, 
changing, now and then, to breakneck stairs where 
the declivity was specially steep. The graded slope 
of Mountain Street zigzagged from the harbour up 
to the Castle, while on the St. Charles side the ascent 
was commonly made by way of Palace Hill. The 
Upper Town was chiefly occupied by public build- 
ings, which comprised the Chateau, the Cathedral, 
churches, schools, and convents. Here also the 
streets followed no definite plan, but ambled hither 
and thither along the uneven summit. Out through 
the city gates ran the roads of St. Louis and St. 
John, highways to the straggling suburbs, which yet 
hung close to the protecting ramparts. 

The houses were built of wood or of grey stone, 
usually to the height of one story, being also sur- 
mounted by a tall, steep roof, through which the 
tiny dormer windows peeped in picturesque disorder. 
Inside, a slight partition divided the dwelling into 
two chambers. In the end of the living-room stood 
a large open fireplace, the household cooking-pots 
swinging from an iron crane. A sturdy table 
occupied the centre of the floor, and benches or 
blocks of wood were ranged as chairs around the 
walls. The inevitable cradle, consecrated to the 
service of two, three, or four generations, pounded 




PETIT CHAMPLAIN STREET TO-DAY 



CHAP. XII THE JNCIEN REGIME 



231 



monotonously to and fro, upon the uneven floor, 
and by the low-set window the thrifty housewife 
wove her flaxen homespun in a venerable loom. 
Saints, in pictures of fervid tints, looked down 
serenely from low, unplastered walls, while from the 
rafters of the ceiling were hung the weapons of the 
family arsenal — flint-lock muskets and hiked hunt- 




OLD PRESCOTT GATE 



ing-knives, and sometimes too an ancestral sword or 
silver-handled pistol. 

In the matter of dress, social distinctions were 
punctiliously regarded. The gentilhomme was as 
careful as his wife to follow the latest vogue at 
Versailles. His hair was curled, powdered, and tied 
in a queue, his headgear was the ceremonious three- 
cornered hat. A stately, coloured frockcoat, an em- 
broidered waistcoat, knee-breeches, silk stockings, 



232 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

and high-heeled buckled shoes completed the toi- 
lette of the Canadian seigneur. 

"The dress of the Habitants,'' says an observer 
of a much later date than Saint-Simon or Montcalm/ 
" is simple and homely ; it consists of a long-skirted 
cloth or frock, of a dark grey colour, with a hood 
attached to it, which in winter time or wet weather 
he puts over his head. His coat is tied round the 
waist by a worsted sash of various colours, ornamented 
with beads. His waistcoat and trousers are of the 
same cloth. A pair of moccasins, or swamp boots, 
complete the lower part of his dress. His hair is 
tied in a thick long queue behind, with an eelskin ; 
and on each side of his face a few straight locks 
hang down like what are vulgarly called ' rat's tails.' 
Upon his head is a bonnet rouge, or in other words, a 
red night-cap. The tout ensemble of his figure is 
completed by a short pipe, which he has in his 
mouth from morning till night. A Dutchman is 
not a greater smoker than a French Canadian. 

" The visage of the Habitant is long and thin, his 
complexion sunburnt and swarthy, and not unfre- 
quently of a darker hue than that of the Indian. 
His eyes, though rather small, are dark and lively ; 
his nose prominent, and inclined to the aquiline or 
Roman form ; his cheeks lank and meagre ; his lips 
small and thin ; his chin sharp and projecting." 

1 Lambert, Tra'vels, vol i. p. I 58. 



XII THE A NCI EN REGIME 233 

In winter, rich and poor alike were wrapped in 
homespun blanket paletots, whose vivid colours made 
a charming picture, as the wayfarers trudged over 
the deep white snow-fields on their buoyant snow- 
shoes, or coasted through the clear and bracing air 
on swift toboggans. In the evening they flocked to a 
chosen rendezvous, where a home-bred violinist tuned 
them through gay quadrilles ; and anon the lonely 
violin would be drowned in the lusty voices of the 
dancers, who suited a folk-song to their steps — 

" Malbrouck s'en va-t-en guerre, 
Mironton, mironton, mirontaine ; 
Malbrouck s'en va-t-en guerre, 
Ne s'ait quand reviendra. 
II reviendra z-a Paques 
Ou a la Trinite. 
La Trinite se passe, 

Malbrouck ne revient pas." 

Moreover, winter, the idle half of the year, was 
the season of social visits ; and in these courtesies 
the habitants were assiduous. Between Christmas 
and Ash Wednesday they strove, it would seem, to 
fill themselves with gaiety against the coming grey 
season of Lent. An unbidden throng of visitors 
would drive to a selected house, and sheer bank- 
ruptcy would indeed have been the housewife's 
portion if this welcome Invasion had been wholly 
unexpected ; but to meet such an emergency cooked 



234 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

meats and pies stood ready upon her pantry shelves, 
while croquignoles and sweet pasties needed only a 
few moments in the oven before a meal was ready. 
Thus during the days of snow they went gaily from 
homestead to homestead, all being victimised in 
turn by these " surprise parties." For la haute no- 




A CARRIOLE 



blesse also, the winter season was the gayest of the 
year. Their quaint carrioles sped jingling over the 
snow from one manor-house to another ; here a 
dinner-party, there a dance, and everywhere a frugal 
happiness. 

In Les Anciens Canadiens De Gaspe portrays the 
life of this seigneurial class to which he himself be- 
longed. The manor-house was usually a long, low. 



XII 



THE ANCIEN REGIME 



^3S 



stone-built structure, surmounted by overhanging 
gables and a lofty roof, A wing was sometimes 
added at right angles, and always a group of strongly- 
built outhouses, stables, and sheds clustered near by ; 
among them standing a stone mill which had perhaps 
served as a tower of refuge in the troublous times 




VILLAGE OF BEAUPORT 



of the Iroquois raids, but which the censitaires now 
used merely to grind their grain. If the Seigneur 
was possessed of power to execute high, middle, and 
low justice, a gallows and a pillory might be found 
within the precincts ; but towards the close of the 
ancien regime these crude implements of punishment 
had happily fallen into disuse. The parish church 
was never far away, the Seigneur being at all times 
the patron of the presbyiere^ as well as the potent 



236 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

bulwark of the feudal village springing up within 
sight of his manor-house. 

These country mansions were much the same as 
those of Quebec, and there was little difference in the 
manner of living within and without the city walls. 
At eight o'clock the gentilhomme and his family 
breakfasted on rolls, white wine, and coffee ; while 
dinner was served at noon, and supper at seven in the 
evening. The dining-room of a fashionable house- 
hold was tastefully arranged. One end of the room 
was completely occupied by the massive side-board, 
filled with ancestral silver and china. Upon a shelf 
apart stood cut-glass decanters for the table service, 
and as a coup d'appetit cordials were handed round in 
the drawing-room. On coming into the dining-room 
the guest might, if he chose, rinse his hands in a blue 
and white porcelain water-basin, which stood upon a 
pedestal in one corner of the room. Arrived at the 
table, he found his convert to consist of a napkin, 
plate, silver goblet, fork and spoon, being expected 
to supply his own knife. For these occasions men 
usually carried knives in their pockets, the ladies 
wearing them in a leathern, silken, or birch-bark 
sheath. This peculiar custom caused some embar- 
rassment to those English officers who were billeted 
in French houses after the capture of the city.^ 

The maple sugar season brought to the habitants 

1 Captain Knox's jfournal 0/ the Siege. 



XII THE ANCIEN REGIME :li,^ 

their first relaxation from the severities of Lent. 
Huge caldrons of sap hung on poles over the roaring 
fires, and the children gathered round to taste the 
syrup, and salute with songs of welcome the coming 
of jocund spring. May-day soon followed, "the 
maddest merriest day " in all the calendar. In the 
early morning the habitant repaired to the seigneury 
to assist in erecting the May-pole. Almost every one 
he knew — man, woman, or child — was there with 
similar intent. Presently the tall fir-tree, stripped of 
its bark, was firmly planted in the farmyard, and a 
deputation waited upon the Seigneur to beg his accept- 
ance of this homage. A fusillade of blank musket 
shots was now kept up until the May-pole was 
thoroughly blackened. This done, the doors of the 
manor-house were thrown wide open in welcome; 
and the rest of the day was one long banquet. The 
Seigneur's tables groaned beneath burdens of roasted 
veal, mutton, and pork, huge bowls of stew, pies, and 
cakes, to which was added white whiskey and tobacco. 
Songs, stories, and homely wit sped the day until the 
banqueters were weak in flesh and spirit. Baptisms, 
betrothals, and weddings also were occasions of feast- 
ing ; and the long-suffering Seigneur hardly escaped 
standing godfather to every child born within seven 
leagues of the manor. 

Even the holy sisters came under the spell of the 
joyous life in which they moved ; and one of the 



238 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

Ursuline nuns who came to Quebec with Madame 
de la Peltrie, thus writes in 1 640 : — 

"Although confined in a small hole, with insuffi- 
cient air, yet we continue in good health. If in 
France one eat only bacon and salt fish, as we do 
here, one might be ill without a word said ; but we 
are well, and sing better than in France. The air is 
excellent, and this is a terrestrial paradise, where the 
difficulties and troubles of life come so lovingly, that 
the more one is piqued, the more one's heart is filled 
with amiability." 

Behind all this gaiety, however, brooded the 
Church ; for even in her lightest moments Quebec 
never strained far on her sacred leash. From its 
foundation as a mission trading-post to its con- 
secration as an episcopal see, the rock city remained 
a fortress of the faith. Its early governors, 
Champlain, D'Ailleboust, and Montmagny, were 
monks military, dividing their services equally 
between faith and fatherland. First the RecoUets, 
then the Jesuits, came into spiritual possession ; and 
later on, episcopal rule succeeded to the influence of 
Loyola's disciples. The relative estimation in which 
these various orders of the Church were held being 
illustrated by a Canadian proverb : " Pour faire un 
Recollet, il faut une hachette, pour un Pretre un 
ciseau, mais pour un Jesuit, il faut un pinceau." 

Thus, and in spite of resistance from D'Argenson, 



xir 



THE ANCIEN REGIME 



239 



D'Avaugour, and Frontenac, Quebec had been held 
fast under a firm ecclesiastical control. Alternating 
penance with persuasion, the priests imposed their 
will upon the people. Absence from church and 
confession brought its sufficient penalty ; and the 
calendar was filled with special days for prayer 




THE BASILICA 



and purification. Priests, monks, and nuns crowded 
the city, in numbers disproportionate to the 
lay population. The place was heavy with the 
incense of a constant worship — the very atmos- 
phere redolent of piety. From the unrestrained 
hands of the early governors, the administration of 
justice passed to the Conseil Superieur^ a body com- 
prising the governor, the bishop, the intendant, and 
a varying number of councillors. Their code took 



240 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

special account of offences against religion, sins for 
which the bishop was careful to exact proper expia- 
tion. The pillory, the stocks, and a certain wooden 
horse with a sharp spine were the ready instruments 
of correction. Proclamations were made either from 
the pulpit or read at the church-door after Mass. 
Royal edicts and ordinances of the Conseil Superieur 
prescribed the duties of citizens, and stated without 
vagueness the penalties which would overtake break- 
ers of the law. Yet in spite of this apparent harsh- 
ness, the laws were administered in so patriarchal a 
spirit as to justify the observation : " It requires 
great interest for a man to be hung in Canada." 

The peasants, moreover, were far from rebelling 
against the impositions of their seigneurs, which they 
took as part of the order of nature ; and General 
Murray, writing after the Conquest, thus bears testi- 
mony to the feeling of good-fellowship prevailing 
between the two classes : " The tenants, who pay 
only an annual quit-rent of about a dollar a year 
for about a hundred acres, are at their ease and 
comfortable. They have been accustomed to respect 
and obey their noblesse ; their tenures being military 
in the feudal manner, they have shared with them 
the dangers of the field, and natural affection has 
been increased in proportion to the calamities which 
have been common to both, from the conquest of 
the country. As they have been taught to respect 



XII 



THE A NCI EN REGIME 



241 



their superiors, and are not yet intoxicated with the 
abuse of liberty, they are shocked at the insults 
which their noblesse and the King's officers have 
received from the English traders and lawyers since 
the civil government took place." 




JESUITS BARRACKS 



Each householder was responsible for the street 
before his property, being compelled to keep it clean 
of snow and refuse. Innkeepers required a license, 
and had to conform to rigid laws. Cattle, pigs, and 
sheep were impounded if found straying in the 
streets, and the Intendant strictly regulated the 
possession of live-stock. 

The first horse seen in New France had been 



242 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

brought out by the Governor Montmagny about 
1636 ; but before the end of the century many more 
were shipped from Havre, and it was not long 
before the law began to regulate this new feature of 
social life. An ordinance forbade any habitant to 
possess more than two mares and one colt. In 
riding away from service on Sunday the horseman was 
forbidden to break into a canter until he had travelled 
ten arpents from the church. Private baptism of 
children was refused except in cases of absolute 
necessity. The order in which the personages of 
Quebec should receive the sacrament was precisely 
established. Roads, bridges, and churches were built 
by forced labour. The construction of houses, both 
as to material and design, was regulated by law. 
Builders were required to conform to a line and 
face their houses on the highway; Certain person- 
ages, however, claimed exemption from this rule, 
and to these was accorded the right — d' avoir pig- 
non sur rue — to have the gable on the street, the 
purpose being to secure a certain degree of pri- 
vacy by means of an entrance away from the public 
highway. 

As to the law of inheritance, the testator was 
bound to divide his estate fairly among all his 
children, the title and the largest share going to the 
eldest son. This legislation, which affected seigneur 
and censitaire alike, subdivided the country into 



XII 



THE A NCI EN REGIME 



243 



ribbon-like farms, with narrow frontages on the river 
and running back long distances inland. This 
attenuated appearance of the rural holdings strikes 
the stranger forcibly as he travels through the 
province of Quebec even at this day, and denotes a 
condition which prevailed in England also in the 
most primitive days of agriculture. The system had 




MODERN CALECHES 



some justification, however, in the necessity which 
each peasant felt of having access to the St. Lawrence, 
the most convenient, and, for nearly a hundred years, 
the only highway to the city of Quebec. Moreover, 
it enabled the settlers to build their houses close 
together, thus protecting themselves against the ever- 
present danger of Indian raids. Even now the river 



244 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

St. Lawrence looks like a gigantic road bordered by 
homely white-washed cottages. 

Examples of the quaint laws and customs of the 
ancien regime might be multiplied indefinitely ; but 
perhaps enough has already been said to show the 
paternalism of the legal system and the medieval- 
ism of the social life which prevailed. Before the 
Conquest the French Canadian had nothing whatever 
to do with the making of his own laws ; and so far 
from struggling to obtain this right, he preferred to 
be without it. The Cure knew all about the laws, 
and the habitant was willing to leave the matter to 
him ! 

On the whole, if we except the wicked exactions of 
the Intendant Bigot and his confederates, Quebec was 
happily governed. From generation to generation 
the light-hearted habitant cheerfully paid his dime 
to the Church, his cens et rente to the Seigneur, 
his military service to the Governor. If the call 
came for a raid upon New England, he took 
down his musket and his powder-horn, and set out 
blithely upon his snow-shoes for the rendezvous of 
war ; if to rally to the defence of Quebec, he was 
equally ready to bury his chattels and take his place 
upon the city ramparts, or to withstand a landing on 
the Beauport shore. 

Such were the people who drew from the first 
British Governor a generous testimony : " I glory," 



XII 



THE A NCI EN REGIME 



245 



says General Murray, " in having been accused of 
warmth and firmness in protecting the King's 
Canadian subjects, and of doing the utmost in my 
power to gain to my royal master the aftections of 
that brave, hardy people, whose emigration, if it 




QUEBEC (^FROM LEVIJ 

should ever happen, would be an irreparable loss to 
this empire." 

So sped life beside the broad St. Lawrence, within 
and around Quebec. So flew the days of the ancien 
regime ; some sunshine, some shadow, and always an 
honest fearless people who served God, honoured the 
King, and stood ready to die for New France and 
the golden lilies. 



CHAPTER XIII 

DURING THE SEVEN YEARs' WAR 

Realising that even a nominal peace could no 
longer be maintained, England threw down the 
gauntlet in the spring of 1756 by formally declar- 
ing war. Three weeks later France responded to 
the challenge, and presently the four corners of the 
earth were shaken by the most terrible conflict of 
the century. England's alliance with Prussia drew 
Austria and Russia into the war on the other side ; 
and notwithstanding the smallness of his kingdom, 
the military genius of Frederick the Great was able 
to hold the three proudest powers of Europe at bay, 
while Clive and Wolfe smote off the heads of the 
triple alliance in India and North America. The 
history of Quebec is concerned with only the latter 
campaign. 

The Marquis de Montcalm, the newly appointed 
commander of the forces in Canada, arrived about 
the middle of May, bringing with him the Chevalier 
de Levis, Bourlamaque, and Bougainville, all of them 

246 



cH.xiii THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR 247 

better generals than those to whom the fatuous 
Duke of Newcastle entrusted the leadership of the 
English army. Montcalm himself is indeed one 
of the most heroic and gallant figures in French 
Canadian history — the personage, /)^r excellence, of 
the closing chapter of French dominion. 

Born at his father's chateau in Candiac in 17 12, 
he inherited all the martial impetuosity of the 
southern noblesse. At fifteen he was an ensign in 
the regiment of Hainaut, at seventeen a captain; 
and, in the campaigns of Bohemia and Italy, his 
conspicuous valour won him quick promotion. At 
forty-four he was a General, commanding the troops 
of Louis XV. in New France. In appearance he 
was under middle height, slender, and graceful in 
movement. Keen clear eyes lighted up a handsome 
face, and wit sparkled upon his lips. 

The Governor, Vaudreuil, son of a former ruler, 
was a Canadian by birth, and accordingly prejudiced 
against officers who came from France. A veiled 
antagonism springing up between himself and Mont- 
calm was a source of weakness to the French cause 
m America, and darkened the closing struggle of 
the devoted French Canadians to keep the land 
for their mother-country. 

Montcalm on his arrival at once took stock, so to 
speak, of his command. His two battalions of La 
Sarre and Royal Roussillon added about twelve 



248 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

hundred men to the troops of the Hne already in 
New France. These, it will be remembered, con- 
sisted of the battalions of Artois and Bourgogne, — 
now the garrison at Louisbourg, — and the battalions 
of La Reine, Languedoc, Guienne, and Beam, num- 
bering in all about three thousand men. Besides 
these, about two thousand troupes de la marine con- 
stituted the permanent military establishment. Last 
of all came the militia, nominally made up of all 
the male inhabitants of Canada between the ages of 
sixteen and sixty, but rarely mustering more than 
two thousand men. Such was the soldiery in New 
France under Montcalm ; and to them were added 
the Indian allies, whose numbers rose or fell with 
the fortune of war. 

Against a Canadian population of less than 
seventy thousand, the English colonies could count 
more than a million souls ; and although they lacked 
cohesion, and, indeed, regular military establishment 
of any kind, their greater wealth and numbers fore- 
told the inevitable result of the struggle. At first 
the tide of war set against the English : an event to 
be expected with Newcastle guiding the ship of state, 
and believing in his generals, Loudon, Webb, and 
Abercrombie, vain and obtuse military martinets, 
who fumbled their opportunities, mismanaged their 
campaigns, and learned no lessons from their failures. 

From Oswego, on the south-east corner of Lake 



XIII THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR 249 

Ontario, the English had planned to attack Fort 
Frontenac and Fort Niagara, so cutting off New 
France from her western outposts. But Montcalm, 
with the speed and energy that marked his character, 
determined to act upon the offensive. With three 
thousand men he hurried to Fort Frontenac, and 
crossed the lake under cover of the night In the 
morning the garrison of Oswego found themselves 
besieged. The cannonade on both sides was brief 
but vigorous ; but the French fought with greater 
spirit, their dash and resource were disconcerting, and 
presently this, the most important English stronghold 
of the west, was compelled to capitulate. Sixteen 
hundred prisoners, a hundred pieces of artillery, and 
a vast quantity of stores and ammunition fell into 
the hands of the triumphant French. Having thus 
secured the west, Montcalm hurried back to Lake 
Champlain, and intrenched himself at Carillon, by 
this means to prevent an invasion of Canada by way 
of the Richelieu. Owing to the lateness of the 
season, however, his opponents undertook no new 
expedition that year, and waited for the spring. 

In 1757 Loudon conceived the idea of attack- 
ing Louisbourg, and accordingly he withdrew his 
troops to Halifax in order to co-operate with 
an English squadron under Admiral Holbourne. 
Loudon's incompetency alone would have fore- 
doomed so hazardous an undertaking ; but once 



250 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

more the elements fought on the side of France, and 
Holbourne's fleet was shattered by a storm. 

So far Montcahii had maintained a defensive 
attitude in the RicheHeu valley, but taking advantage 
of Loudon's diversion towards Louisbourg, he now 
resolved upon attacking Fort William Henry, 
strongly held by over two thousand English troops. 
Moving out of his intrenchments at Carillon, there- 
fore, and supported by Levis and Bougainville, he 
advanced up the valley with six thousand soldiers and 
over a thousand Indians. Monro, the British com- 
mandant, sharply rejected the summons to surrender, 
and Montcalm began the investment of the fort. 

Fourteen miles away. General Webb lay encamped 
at Fort Edward with twenty-six hundred men, and 
to him Monro sent for assistance. But the timorous 
Webb had no stomach for a fight. Huddling 
behind his breastworks, he listened to the booming 
of the fierce cannonade across the hills, but made 
no move to save Fort William Henrv. Monro, 
seeing himself thus abandoned, his powder gone, 
his ramparts and bastions shattered by Montcalm's 
heavy artillery, at length asked for terms. Surren- 
dering their arms, the garrison marched out with 
the honours of war, drums beating; but they also 
marched into one of the most shameful disasters 
recorded in American history. 

Frenzied by the protracted siege, and burning 



XIII 



THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR 



251 



with vengeance for their slain in the trenches, the 
savage allies of the French burst all restraint and fell 
upon the disarmed garrison. In vain Montcalm, 




DE LEVIS 



Levis, and Bourlamaque begged, threatened, and even 
interposed their own bodies to prevent a massacre. 
Defenceless men, women, and children were toma- 
hawked in cold blood, or reserved for more leisurely 



252 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

torment. Some of the poor fugitives, fleeing at the 
first war-whoop, reached Fort Edward through the 
woods. Four hundred of the captives were eventu- 
ally rescued by the French, while the Indians,decamp- 
ing after their carnival of blood, carried two hundred 
wretched victims back to their lodges. Then 
followed the work of demolishing Fort William 
Henry, and soon its blazing ruins, a funeral pyre for 
the slaughtered garrison, lit up the summer night, 
and cast a lurid flame soon to kindle the avenging 
wrath of England. 

To these ill-boding events, moreover, the loss of 
Minorca was now added, until England at last refused 
to endure longer the incapacity of Newcastle, and 
clamoured for the appointment of Pitt. " Eng- 
land has long been in labour," commented Frederick 
of Prussia, " and at last she has brought forth a 
man." From that moment the fortune of war was 
changed. Corruption and divided counsels no longer 
paralysed the government, and the Great Commoner, 
healthy minded, rugged, and enthusiastic, now stood 
to middle-class England as an embodiment of 
strength and purpose, which sent new blood cours- 
ing through her veins and braced her for the gather- 
ing storm. 

To America, where the clouds were darkest, Pitt 
first turned his attention. Louisbourg, Carillon, 
Duquesne, and Quebec must be brought low, if, as 



XIII THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR 253 

was his purpose, French power was not only to be 
crushed but absokitely destroyed. And towards this 
goal Pitt moved swiftly at the head of a nation 
as resolute as himself. Loudon and Webb were 
instantly recalled, and Amherst, Wolfe, and Howe 
were appointed in their places, the last being 
ordered to second Abercrombie, whom Pitt had 
reluctantly retained in his command. 

The years since 1745 had been years of growing 
strength for Louisbourg, and in 1758 it almost 
equalled Quebec itself in importance. Its capable 
commandant, the Chevalier de Drucour, counted 
four thousand citizens and three thousand men-at- 
arms for his garrison ; while twelve battleships, 
mounting five hundred and forty-four guns, and 
manned by three thousand sailors and marines, rode 
at anchor in the rock-girt harbour, the fortress itself, 
with its formidable outworks, containing two hundred 
and nineteen cannon and seventeen mortars. Bold 
men only could essay the capture of such a fortress, 
but such were Wolfe, Amherst, and Admiral 
Boscawen, whose work it was to do. 

The fleet and transports sailed from Halifax, 
bearing eleven thousand six hundred men full of 
spirit and faith in their commanders. All accessible 
landing-places at Louisbourg had been fortified by the 
French ; but in spite of this precaution and a heavy 
surf, Wolfe's division gained the beach and carried 



254 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

the redoubts at Freshwater Cove. A general landing 
having been thus effected, Wolfe marched round the 
flank of the fortress to establish a battery at Light- 
house Point. The story may only be outlined here. 
First the French were forced to abandon Grand 
Battery, which frowned over the harbour, then the 
Island Battery was silenced. On the forty-third day 
of the siege, a frigate in the harbour was fired by 
shells, and drifting from her moorings, destroyed two 
sister ships. Four vessels which had been sunk at the 
mouth of the harbour warded Boscawen's fleet from 
the assault, but did not prevent six hundred daring 
blue-jackets from seizing the Prudent and Bienfaisant^ 
the two remaining ships of the French squadron. 

Meanwhile, zigzag trenches crept closer and closer 
to the walls, upon which the heavy artillery now 
played at short range with deadly effect. Bombs 
and grenades hissed over the shattering ramparts and 
burst in the crowded streets ; roundshot and grape 
tore their way through the wooden barracks ; while 
mortars and musketry poured a hail of shell and 
bullet upon the brave defenders. Nothing could save 
Louisbourg now that Pitt's policy of Thorough had 
got headway. On the 26th of July a white flag 
fluttered over the Dauphin's Bastion ; and by mid- 
night of that date Drucour had signed Amherst's 
terms enjoining unconditional surrender. 

Then the work of demolition commenced. The 



XIII THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR 255 

mighty fortress, which had cast a dark shadow over 
New England for ahnost half a century, " the 
Dunkirk of America," must stand no longer as a 
menace. An army of workmen laboured for months 
with pick and spade and blasting-powder upon those 
vast fortifications ; yet nothing but an upheaval of 
nature itself could obliterate all traces of earthwork, 
ditch, glacis, and casemate, which together made up 
the frowning fortress of Louisbourg. To-day grass 
grows on the Grand Parade, and daisies blow upon 
the turf-grown bastions ; but who may pick his way 
over those historic mounds of earth without a sigh 
for the buried valour of bygone years ! 

In the Richelieu valley, meanwhile, the armies of 
England and France had met in even fiercer conflict. 
Montcalm lay intrenched at Carillon at the head of 
the battalions of La Sarre, Languedoc, Berry, Royal 
Roussillon, La Reine, Beam, and Guienne, three 
thousand six hundred men in all. To this high 
rocky battlement overlooking Lake Champlain, the 
French had hastily added a rugged outwork of felled 
trees on the crest of a flanking hill. The ridge thus 
fortified now looked down upon a valley stripped of 
its timber, but covered with rugged stumps and a 
maze of stakes and branches, which, while afford- 
ing no cover for an enemy, presented insuperable 
obstacles to his advance. 

On came Abercrombie at the head of fifteen 



256 OLD QUEBEC CHAP. 

thousand men, offering the most imposing military 
spectacle yet seen in the New World. They advanced 
in three divisions — the regulars in the centre, com- 
manded by the gallant Lord Howe, and a blue 
column of provincials on either flank. To the 
martial music of their bands or the shrill notes of the 
bagpipe they gaily marched through the midsummer 
woods, the Forty-Second Highlanders in the van. 

As the army drew near to the French position. 
Lord Howe pressed forward to reconnoitre the 
approaches. This young nobleman, although but 
thirty-four years of age, had already reached the top 
of his profession. Keen and daring, with a hand of 
steel in a glove of velvet, and a magnetism that 
charmed the regular and the provincial alike. Lord 
Howe had become the soul of Abercrombie's army; 
and as he fell in this engagement, shot through the 
breast by a skirmisher's bullet, that army at once 
declined to its ruin. 

Notwithstanding this loss, Abercrombie swept 
on along the Indian trail ; and when Montcalm 
looked down from the rough ramparts of Carillon 
upon that splendid pageant, all hope of saving his 
stronghold was banished. All hope save one. The 
indiscretion of the English General might lead him 
to decide upon assault instead of siege. The inept 
Abercrombie did not disappoint him — Carillon was 
to be taken at the point of the bayonet ! 



XIII THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR 257 

All day long the fearless battalions of Old and 
New England hurled themselves against the fatal 
breastwork ; all day long those steady columns of 
British infantry, headed by Campbell's Highlanders, 
brilliantly valiant, pressed up the rough glacis under 
a cross-fire which swept them front and flank. At 
night two thousand of Abercrombie's stubborn 
soldiery lay dead upon the field. Their splendid 
valour had been all in vain against the invisible 
musketeers of Montcalm, Levis, and Bourlamaque. 

Among the slain was the brave Duncan Campbell 
of Inverawe, of whom Parkman relates the following 
legend : — 

"The ancient castle of Inverawe stands by the 
banks of the Awe, in the midst of the wild and 
picturesque scenery of the Western Highlands. 
Late one evening, before the middle of the eigh- 
teenth century, as the laird, Duncan Campbell, sat 
alone in the hall, there was a loud knocking at the 
gate ; and opening it, he saw a stranger, with torn 
clothing and kilt besmeared with blood, who, in a 
breathless voice, begged for asylum. He went on 
to say that he had killed a man in a fray, and that 
the pursuers were at his heels. Campbell promised 
to shelter him. ' Swear on your dirk ! ' said the 
stranger ; and Campbell swore. He then led him 
to a secret recess in the depths of the castle. 



258 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

*' Scarcely was he hidden when again there was a 
loud knocking at the gate, and two armed men 
appeared. ' Your cousin Donald has been murdered, 
and we are looking for the murderer ! ' 

" Campbell, remembering his oath, professed to 
have no knowledge of the fugitive ; and the men 
went on their way. 

" The laird, in great agitation, lay down to rest 
in a large dark room, when at length he fell asleep. 
Waking suddenly in bewilderment and terror, he 
saw the ghost of the murdered Donald standing by 
his bedside, and heard a hollow voice pronounce the 
words : ' Inverawe ! Inverawe ! blood has been shed. 
Shield not the murderer I ' 

" In the morning, Campbell went to the hiding- 
place of the guilty man, and told him that he could 
harbour him no longer. ' You have sworn on your 
dirk ! ' he replied ; and the laird of Inverawe, greatly 
perplexed and troubled, made a compromise between 
conflicting duties, promised not to betray his guest, 
led him to the neighbouring mountain, and hid him 
in a cave. 

" In the next night, as he lay tossing in feverish 
slumbers, the same stern voice awoke him, the ghost 
of his cousin Donald stood again at his bedside, and 
again he heard the same appalling words : ' Inverawe ! 
Inverawe ! blood has been shed. Shield not the 
murderer ! ' At the break of day he hastened, in 



XIII THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR 259 

strange agitation, to the cave ; but it was empty, the 
stranger was gone. At night, as he strove in 
vain to sleep, the vision appeared once more, ghastly 
pale, but less stern of aspect than before. * Fare- 
well^ Inverawe ! ' it said ; '■farewell^ till we meet at 
Ticonderoga ! ' ^ 

"The strange man dwelt in Campbell's memory. 
He had joined the Black Watch, or Forty-Second 
Regiment, then employed in keeping order in the 
turbulent Highlands. In time he became its major; 
and a year or two after the war broke out he went 
with it to America, Here, to his horror, he learned 
that it was ordered to the attack of Ticonderoga. 
His story was well known among his brother officers. 
They combined among themselves to disarm his 
fears ; and when they reached the fatal spot they 
told him on the eve of the battle, ' This is not 
Ticonderoga ; we are not there yet ; this is Fort 
George.' But in the morning he came to them with 
haggard looks. ' I have seen him ! You have 
deceived me ! He came to my tent last night ! 
This is Ticonderoga ! I shall die to-day ! ' 

" And his prediction was fulfilled." '^ 

However magnificent was the triumph of the 
French arms at Carillon, it could not balance the 
loss of Louisbourg ; and before the summer of 1758 

1 Ticonderoga, the Indian name for the fort of Carillon. 
^ Parkman, Montcalm and fVolfe, vol. ii., Appendix. 



26o OLD QUEBEC chap. 

had ended, the heart of Quebec was wrung with news 
of further disasters. Crossing Lake Ontario with a 
force of three thousand colonials, Colonel Bradstreet 
appeared suddenly before Fort Frontenac. In spite 
of the abundant store of furs, ammunition, and im- 
plements of war which the lake fort contained, its 
garrison had been hopelessly weakened to supply 
troops for the Richelieu district, and when surprised 
by Bradstreet it consisted of but one hundred and 
ten soldiers. Without firing a shot, the command- 
ant, De Noyan, surrendered the position. 

This blow cut New France into halves, severing 
the western forts from their base of supplies, and 
effectually destroying what remained of French in- 
fluence over the wavering Indian tribes. Meanwhile, 
General Forbes, with six thousand men, was march- 
ing from Philadelphia to attack Fort Duquesne. 
After three months of hardship he arrived at the 
junction of the Ohio and Monongahela ; but the 
commandant De Ligneris had not awaited his com- 
ing, and the fort now lay in ashes, having been 
destroyed by its own garrison when it became clear 
that succour could no longer be expected from 
Quebec. 

Quebec itself, though up to this time beyond the 
range of actual war, was in the usual throes of civil 
discord. If Vaudreuil, the Governor, had previously 
been jealous of Montcalm, the recent success achieved 



XIII THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR 261 

by the latter at Carillon now doubled his resentment. 
Casting about for any conceivable point of criticism, 
Vaudreuil blamed the General for not turning 
Abercrombie's retreat into a rout. Regarding this 
inspiration, Montcalm writes to Bourlamaque : "I 
ended by saying quietly ' that when I went to war I 
did the best I could ; and that when one is not 
pleased with one's lieutenants, one had better take 
the field in person.' He was very much moved, and 
muttered between his teeth that perhaps he would ; 
at which I said that I should be delighted to serve 
under him. Madame de Vaudreuil wanted to put 
in her word. I said : * Madame, saving due respect, 
permit me to have the honour to say that ladies 
ought not to talk war.' She kept on. I said : 
* Madame, saving due respect, permit me to have the 
honour to say that if Madame de Montcalm were 
here, and heard me talking war with Monsieur le 
Marquis de Vaudreuil, she would remain silent.' " 

Thus the cloaked strife between the General and 
the so-called Canadian party proceeded. Vaudreuil 
wrote earnestly to the Court to have Montcalm re- 
called ; while Montcalm, who was not blind to the 
malversations of Bigot and his clique, made this 
matter the burden of some of his official letters. 
The result was a rebuke administered to Vaudreuil 
and the Intendant, which further heated their feeling 
against Montcalm. Bougainville was despatched to 



262 OLD QUEBEC chap, xiii 

France to lav an account of the dire distress of 
Canada before the Court. Montcah-n's letters highly 
commended the envoy, but Vaudreuil as promptly 
described him as a creature of the General, and 
their quarrel did not help New France at the Royal 
Court. Berryer, the Colonial Minister, received 
Bougainville coldly, and to his appeal for help 
replied : " Eh, Monsieur, when the house is on fire 
one cannot concern one's self with the stable." But 
the Canadian envoy responded, with caustic wit, 
" At least. Monsieur, nobody will say that you talk 
like a horsed 

Berryer's remark, however, exactly described the 
state of affairs. Worsted by Clive at Plassey, and 
by Frederick the Great at Leuthen and Rossbach, 
even the loss of Louisbourg, the Forts Duquesne and 
Frontenac, could hardly add to France's cup of 
bitterness, and to save herself in Europe she was 
prepared for sacrifice in America. Within the 
single twelvemonth during which Pitt had been at 
the helm of England, France had altered her pre- 
tentious claim upon almost the whole of North 
America to the extremely reasonable demand for a 
foothold on the river St. Lawrence. Even this last 
claim was now assailed ; and as she fell back into 
her last intrenchments, the armies of England 
advanced to the final encounter. 

The general hopelessness of the situation in 




GOVERNOR OF NEWFOUNDLANn, 1759 



CHAP, xiri THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR 265 

Canada is reflected In a letter written by the Minister 
of War, M. de Belleisle, to Montcalm, under the 
date 19th February, 1759 : " Besides increasing the 
dearth of provisions, it is to be feared that reinforce- 
ments, if despatched, would fall into the power of 
the English. The King is unable to send succours 
proportional to the force the English can place in 
the field to oppose you. . . . You must confine 
yourself to the defensive, and concentrate all your 
forces within as narrow limits as possible. It is of 
the last importance to preserve some footing in 
Canada. However small the territory preserved 
may be, it is indispensable that un pied should be 
retained in North America, for if all be once lost it 
would become impossible to recover it." 

And Montcalm wrote in reply : " For my part, 
and that of the troops under me, we are ready to 
fall with the colony, and to be buried in its ruins." 
And later : " If we are left without a fleet at Quebec, 
the enemy can come there ; and Quebec taken, the 
colony is lost. . . . If the war continues, Canada will 
belong to the English in course of this campaign or 
the next. If peace be made, the colony is lost unless 
there be a total change of management." Levis bore 
similar testimony to the discouragement caused to 
the colonials by the indifl^erent attitude of the 
Government of France. " I see," he wrote, " that 
it is necessary to defend ourselves foot by foot, 



266 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

fighting to the death ; for it will be better for the 
King's service that we should die with arms in our 
hands than for us to accept disgraceful terms of 
surrender like those permitted at the capitulation of 
Cape Breton." 

The plan of the campaign of 1759 embraced 
simultaneous attacks upon Quebec and Montreal. 
The former was entrusted to Wolfe and Admiral 
Saunders, and the latter to Amherst. The French, 
on their part, disposed their troops entirely upon 
the defensive, Montcalm and Vaudreuil, command- 
ers of the regulars and the militia, concentrating 
their soldiers round Quebec ; while Bourlamaque, 
with less than four thousand men, was despatched 
to hold the gateway of the Richelieu against 
Amherst. 

Bourlamaque first took up his position at Carillon, 
but on the approach of the English he blew up the 
walls of his fortress and retired to Crown Point. 
Meanwhile the deliberate Amherst marched slowly 
forward, building forts as he went, in this mistaken 
zeal for military efficiency defeating the purpose of 
Pitt, which was, to make a strong diversion for 
covering Wolfe's movement upon the St. Lawrence. 
It was August before he arrived at Crown Point. 
This fortress, however, the wily Bourlamaque had 
previously abandoned for the stronger position of 
Isle-aux-Noix, at the outlet of Lake Champlain. 



XIII THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR 267 

Even then Amherst refrained from hurrying 
forward to overwhelm the French with his superior 
numbers; and when at length autumn came, he 
was still advancing cautiously from Crown Point. 
But Wolfe no longer needed his help. 



CHAPTER XIV 

"here died WOLFE VICTORIOUS" 

In spite of her strong position, Quebec did not await 
the arrival of the enemy with folded hands. Since 
1720 walls and bastions of grey stone had completely 
girded the city, but within that time no invasion had 
tested its strength. Even now, in the midst of the 
most desperate war the New World had ever known, 
Vaudreuil loudly proclaimed that the fortress was 
impregnable ; and his letters, promising annihilation 
to his foolhardy foes, are painful gasconade. Yet 
with all this show of assurance, he was careful to 
send through the parishes, calling out to service 
every available man, and in some cases boys of thir- 
teen and fourteen years of age ; while the women 
and children, hiding the household valuables, with- 
drew from the river to places of safety. 

A council of war had in the meantime decided to 
place the city under cover of an intrenched camp, 
which Montcalm was at first in favour of locating on 
the Plains of Abraham ; but in view of the fact that 

268 




Falls of Monbiioreiici toSfllerjr; 
^/,n/7t l^£ Opera fay7u of^id 
SlEGEof QUEBOGC 




. ', '■ £a>n/in/;,afirf t/uFu-jtBoAiKifn /uul='.': • 
' '■ ' tecird the Fleet /f-<nn^Ji/^ f/'jire.- ' ' 




Actio J*'s-aifl«j i»fTai*ENGiJSir 



BritUSx ; - 
\t!raruiti. 



or. 4 ^•' 

















CHAP. XIV "HERE DIED WOLFE" 269 

the bastions of the citadel and the batteries erected 
on the quays of Lower Town were already in full 
command of the river, another site was finally 
selected. Assuming that the enemy could never 
force his way up the river past the city batteries, 
he concluded that the enemy must land by way of 
the lowlands below the town ; and Wolfe himself 
had a like opinion until long after the investment 
had begun. 

Since spring, when the proclamation of Vaudreuil 
had been read at the doors of the country churches, 
a constant stream of men and boys had been flow- 
ing towards Quebec ; and by the middle of June 
Montcalm found himself in command of more than 
sixteen thousand men, including regulars, militia, and 
Indians. The mouth of the St, Charles had been 
closed with a heavy boom of logs, in front of which 
was moored a floating battery mounting five cannon ; 
and behind it two stranded hulks, armed with heavy 
ordnance, were able to sweep the Bay. From this 
point to the height where, seven miles away, the 
Montmorency leaped foaming over its dizzy preci- 
pice, the lowlands of Beauport had been strongly 
fortified and intrenched. Redoubts had been erected 
at all possible landing-places ; and behind these vast 
earthworks which followed the curving shore, the 
Canadian forces lay securely encamped. The right 
wing, composed of the militia regiments of Quebec 



270 



OLD QUEBEC 



CHAP. 



and Three Rivers, under M. de Saint-Ours and M. 
de Bonne, took up its position facing the city on 
the flats known as La Canardiere ; the centre, 
stretching from the St. Charles to the Beauport 
river, consisted of two thousand regulars under 
Brigadier Senezergues ; and the left, including the 
Montreal militia, held the road from the Beauport 




ENTRANCE 10 THE CITADEL TO-DAY 



to the Montmorency. Montcalm established his 
headquarters in the centre, wisely entrusting the 
left wing to the capable De Levis, the right being 
assigned to Bougainville. 

Within the walls, the Chevalier de Ramezay 
commanded a garrison of above a thousand men. 
Every gate but one had been closed and barricaded, 
the Porte du Palais being left open to afford com- 
munication between the city and the camp by way of 




I /I /// /■/// //// . Iii/n/at.f ///■ I it '///- ■////// 



XIV "HERE DIED WOLFE" 271 

a bridge of boats across the St. Charles. Vaudreuil 
transferred the seat of government to Beauport, 
taking up his quarters at the centre with Montcalm ; 
and those of the citizens who were not required to 
man the ramparts removed themselves and their 
valuables for safety to the country. Quebec was 
armed to the teeth. Three hundred feet above the 
river rose the battery of the citadel ; on a lower 
level the Castle Battery frowned over towards Point 
Levi, the Grand Battery commanding the harbour ; 
while, on the wharves of Lower Town, the Oueen's, 
Dauphin's, and Royal batteries were able to sweep 
the narrows. Even though the English fleet might 
run this gauntlet of heavy ordnance, the high cliflFs 
for miles above the city remained practically inaccess- 
ible, and at almost any point a hundred resolute 
men would sufiice to beat back an army. In the 
face of these preparations, it seemed an act of 
madness to attempt the reduction of Quebec. But 
within defences so secure the ardent spirts of the 
Canadian troops were chafing at enforced inaction ; 
for although diligently exercised by their com- 
manders, they still had leisure to think of the homes 
they loved, where the corn would never be garnered. 
On the English side Captain Cook, as his biog- 
rapher relates, " was employed to procure accurate 
soundings of the channel between the Island of 
Orleans and the shore of Beauport — a service of 



272 



OLD QUEBEC 



CHAP. 



great danger, which could only be performed in the 
night-time. He had scarcely finished when he was 
discovered, and a number of Indians in canoes started 
to cut him off. The pursuit was so close that they 
jumped in at the boat's stern as Cook leaped out to 
gain the protection of the English sentinel. The 



§T- 


'^\ '4bL ^■m 








^^^^^^H 1 







HOPE GATE 



boat was carried off by the Indians. Cook, however, 
furnished the admiral with as correct a draft of the 
channel and soundings as could afterwards have been 
made when the English were in peaceable possession 
of Quebec." 

At length, towards the end of June, the invading 
ships sailed up the channel south of the Isle of 
Orleans ; twenty ships of the line, twenty frigates, 



XIV "HERE DIED WOLFE" 273 

and a swarm of transports, bearing in all about nine 
thousand men. But Quebec, so often threatened in 
the past, and ever fortunate in resistance, gazed com- 
placently down upon this imposing fleet. Mont- 
calm feared but one contingency, the co-operation 
of Amherst with Wolfe from the west ; and this, as 
we have seen, was a needless anxiety. Disembark- 
ing, Wolfe pitched his camp at the western end 
of the Isle of Orleans, four miles from Quebec. 
Before him rose the portentous batteries of the city, 
and, on his right, the long battle-line of Montcalm 
flaunted a desperate challenge. Remembering, how- 
ever, that defences stronger still had been carried at 
Louisbourg, the English General confidently drew 
up his plans. 

The only vantage-ground left unoccupied by the 
French was the Heights of Levi, opposite the city, 
Montcalm having thought it unwise to isolate there 
any portion of his force. Thither, accordingly, 
Monckton's brigade was now despatched ; and 
English batteries, rising darkly on the high clifi^s, 
were soon directing across the narrow channel of the 
river that hail of shot which, within a month, had left 
the Lower Town a heap of ashes, and dropped de- 
struction upon the crowded summit of the citadel. 
So galling grew this fire, that at last a force was 
sent to destroy the English camp ; and on the 
night of July the 12th, fifteen hundred soldiers and 



274 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

Indians stole silently from Sillery across the river. 
But as they picked their way through the dark 




ADMIRAL SIR CHARLES SAUNDERS 

(Under Wolfe before Quebec) 



woods, trembling with the excitement of a dangerous 
adventure, a sudden panic seized them, and in the 
confusion, the students of the Seminary, who formed 



XIV "HERE DIED WOLFE" 275 

part of the column, opened fire upon their own men. 
DiscipHne and order were at once discarded, and the 
whole party rushed back in terror to the boats. At 
dawn they returned from this unhappy and futile 
expedition, bringing new terrors to their fellow- 
citizens, who nicknamed this bloodless effort the 
" Scholars' Battle " ; and Quebec again endured the 
misery of ceaseless bombardment. 

With strange fatuity the French employed another 
device to destroy the fleet of the invaders and carry 
terror into their ranks. A flotilla of fireships was 
loaded to the gunwale with pitch, tar, powder bombs, 
grenades, and scrap-iron ; and towards midnight 
these floating hell-boats slipped their moorings and 
drifted with the tide towards the English fleet riding 
at the Point of Orleans. Tide and stream bore them 
swiftly through the gloom ; and at a given signal, 
fuses were ignited and the crews escaped in boats. 
Sharp tongues of flame ran along the bulwarks, 
and the loose powder sputtered and hissed. Then, 
suddenly, the night was rent by explosion after 
explosion, reverberating through the canons of the 
distant Laurentides, and echoing along the river 
walls beyond Cap Tourmente. A lurid glare lit up 
the broad harbour, the towers and minarets of the 
beleaguered city, revealing in red light the full tents 
of the French army along the Beauport lowlands. 

To the English it was '- the grandest fireworks 



276 OLD QUEBEC chap, xiv 

that can possibly be conceived"; but the French 
were in no mood to enjoy its harmless effulgence. 
The fuses had been lighted half an hour too soon, 
and before the tide of the north channel carried 
them to the English fleet, the magnificent flotilla, 
upon which Quebec had squandered a million livres^ 
had become a squadron of blazing hulks which 
the British sailors grappled and towed to shore. 
All night long their impotent fires lit up the Bay, 
and by sunrise another hope of New France had 
turned to ashes. 

Although the unquenchable batteries of Point Levi 
continued to pour destruction upon Quebec, Wolfe 
saw that the defeat of Montcalm must precede the 
capture of the city ; and to this end he now directed 
his attention. Beyond the rocky gorge of the 
Montmorency, a high open land seemed to offer a 
possible avenue of attack upon the French camp 
across the river, and thither the English General 
resolved to transfer his main camp. On the night of 
the 8th of July he embarked with three thousand men 
— the brigades of Townshend and Murray, a body of 
grenadiers, light infantry, and the Sixtieth Regiment, 
or Royal Americans. Before dawn they made a 
landing at the village of L' Ange Gardien, and gained 
the heights after a slight skirmish with an irregular 
body of native militia. Earthworks were hastily 
thrown up, fascine batteries were erected, and Mont- 



CHAP. XIV "HERE DIED WOLFE" 279 

calm's reveille next morning was a heavy cannonade 
from this new quarter. 

Wolfe had now divided his army into three 
camps, each so far removed from the other that little 
or no help could be expected in case of separate 
attack. Yet it was in vain that he tempted Mont- 
calm to battle. For weeks his guns roared challenge 
across the Montmorency ; but the cautious French 
General only shrugged his shoulders and remarked : 
" Let him amuse himself where he is. If we drive 
him off he may go to some place where he can 
do us harm." To discover this vulnerable spot 
Wolfe would have risked much, as appears from his 
daring instructions of the i8th of July. On this 
day the Sutherland and several small frigates ran the 
gauntlet of the city batteries, and racing through 
the hail of lead and iron falling from a hundred 
guns upon the ramparts, they reached Cap Rouge 
above Quebec. 

To the French the impossible had happened. 
Montcalm, therefore, hastily detailed a small force to 
defend tb ; cliffs ; and the right wing of the army 
under B( jgainville was charged with the protection 
of the c / upon its flank, or landward side. To 
Wolfe, jwever, who himself made the hazardous 
voyage n the Sutherland^ the result of the recon- 
naissanc. was not cheering. No point upon those 
rugged cliffs seemed to offer a favourable landing ; 



< 1 



28o OLD QUEBEC chap. 

and he came back to his camp on the Montmorency 
more than ever convinced that Montcahn's army 
could be defeated only by a direct assault upon its 
strong intrenchments. This desperate enterprise he 
essayed on the last day of July. 

When the tide runs out past the Isle of Orleans, it 
leaves a wide sandy beach at the foot of the cliffs 
between Beauport and Montmorency, the mouth of 
the latter river also being hardly more than knee- 
deep at ebb-tide. Aware of these conditions, the 
French had erected a strong redoubt at the edge of 
the strand, and posted a large force of musketeers 
in the intrenchments capping the heights above it. 
This was the point which Wolfe selected for attack. 

In the morning at high tide the Centurion^ of 
sixty-four guns, took up a position near the Mont- 
morency ford and opened fire upon the French 
redoubt. During this movement two armed trans- 
ports detailed to second her cannonade, running too 
close upon the shore, were stranded with the receding 
tide. At the same time, the batteries of Wolfe's 
camp across the river were pounding the enemy's 
flank. Towards noon five thousand British soldiers 
pressed towards the point of attack ; some in boats 
from Point Levi and Orleans, some crossing the 
ford from Townshend's camp. The first to reach 
the spot were thirteen companies of grenadiers and 
a detachment of Royal Americans, who having 



XIV "HERE DIED WOLFE" 281 

landed from the boats, instead of waiting for Monck- 
ton's brigade which was close behind, dashed boldly 
forward across the strand. The French gave way 
before their impetuous rush, and abandoned the 
redoubt at the foot of the hill. Then, suddenly, the 
crest of the ridge above them blazed with musketry, 
and the cross-fire from the trenches poured a hail 
of death upon their panting ranks. Up the terrible 
glacis they still strove to climb in the face of a 
splashing downpour of bullets. At that moment 
the sky became overcast, and from the pall of cloud 
hanging over Beauport a wild storm of rain broke 
over the battlefield. It was impossible to scale 
the slippery rocks, the powder was drenched and 
useless. Seeing the madness of further attack, Wolfe 
now sounded a retreat. A force of less than a 
thousand men had attempted to storm a bristling 
chfF whose double line of defence consisted of 
the muskets of Canadian sharpshooters and the 
bayonets of Beam, Guienne, and Royal Roussillon ; 
and before the order to retire was given, nearly half 
their number had fallen in this bootless conflict on 
the Beauport Flats. 

It was now August, and the hopes of Quebec rose 
higher with the advancing season. So far the 
English had scored no perceptible success; and 
although the batteries of Point Levi had laid the 
Lower Town in ruins, and were still pounding at 



282 OLD QUEBEC 



CHAP. 



the high ramparts, the defences of the city remained 
practically as strong as ever. The steady bombard- 
ment, however, was causing much suffering and 
anxiety to those inhabitants who had been unable to 
flee from the city ; and for two full days the Lower 
Town was in flames, the large company of sappers 
and miners, detailed as a fire brigade, being power- 
less against the conflagration. The walls of Notre 
Dame des Victoires kept guard upon the poor wreck 
of its venerated altars, while in the Upper Town 
the Cathedral tower had been shot away, and the 
Basilica itself was half a ruin. Some of the rampart 
batteries were buried beneath the debris of demolished 
houses, and bursting shells ploughed up the streets ; 
moreover, the wooden palisade, hastily erected in the 
Quartier du Palais to provide against a possible 
assault by way of the St. Charles, had been destroyed 
by fire. At last forsaking the dangerous walls 
of their exposed convents, the Ursulines and the 
nuns of Hotel-Dieu sought shelter further afield. 
The Hospital General, established by Bishop St. 
Vallier, Laval's successor, on a bend of the St. 
Charles, being beyond the range of the English 
artillery, the homeless poor flocked thither for refuge, 
until the convent and all its dependances were filled 
to overflowing with miserable refugees. The chapel 
was pressed into service as a ward for the wounded ; 
and holy Masses were said by special permission in 



XIV "HERE DIED WOLFE" 283 

the chxur. During this time of trial Bishop Pont- 
briand remained in the city, exhorting its defenders 
to be of good courage and cheering the wounded 
by his ministrations ; while, as if to counteract his 
influence for good, the more heartless spirits were 
tempted to robbery and pillage — a shameless addition 
to the general suffering promptly checked by a 
gallows in the Place d'Armes. 

Provisions had been plentiful enough up to mid- 
summer ; but as the siege was prolonged beyond 
harvest time, and as Wolfe's soldiers were laying the 
country waste in every direction as far as eye could 
see, it was no wonder that Montcalm felt some 
anxiety for the feeding of fifteen thousand troops. 
Moreover, an unexpected consequence of Wolfe's 
repulse at Beauport now brought a new anxiety to 
the French ; for British operations were presently 
begun at a point above the city, to the great peril of 
its food-supply. Admiral Holmes's division had 
forced a passage up the river, soon to be joined by 
twelve hundred men under Brigadier Murray, who 
had instructions to menace the city upon its flank. 
Up and down the river this composite squadron 
cruised, making feints now here, now there, ex- 
hausting the energies of Bougainville and his column 
of fifteen hundred men, who were thus forced to 
cover an exposed shore for a distance of fifty miles. 
Murray attempted a landing at Pointe-aux-Trembles, 



284 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

but was beaten back ; at La Muletiere he was also 
unsuccessful ; but at Deschambault, forty-one miles 
above the city, he was able to destroy a large 
quantity of French stores without the loss of a man. 
Up to this time the French had conveyed their 
supplies from Batiscan to St. Augustin by water, and 




GENERAL HOSPITAL 



thence overland to Quebec, a distance of thirteen 
miles. But the presence of Admiral Holmes's 
squadron rendered this method of transport pre- 
carious, and an attempt was made to drive supplies 
overland from Batiscan ; but as this place was 
sixty-seven miles distant from Quebec, famine 
laid its hand upon the city before they could arrive. 
French transports were therefore compelled to 



XIV "HERE DIED WOLFE" 285 

run the perilous blockade of the vigilant English 
fleet. 

Meanwhile, upon the report of the slow but suc- 
cessful advance of Amherst in the Richelieu Valley, 
news had come of the fall of Fort Niagara. New 
France now retained no vestige of her Western 
empire. Except for Bourlamaque at Isle-aux-Noix, 
Montreal had no defence against British attack ; 
and thither, on the ninth of August, Montcalm 
despatched Levis with eight hundred men. Even 
though Wolfe had failed to carry the city by assault, 
the garrison were now thoroughly alarmed at the 
protracted siege, and prayed for an early winter 
which must drive the English out of the river. The 
militia of Montcalm's army were deserting by hun- 
dreds, their fortitude breaking down as they saw 
the sky reddened with the flames of the river parishes, 
and languished under the strain of short rations. 

Montcalm himself felt the pinch of a failing com- 
missariat, but with good-humour he made the best of 
the position. An example of his whimsical mood 
and gay fortitude may be found in a menu he 
presents in a letter to Levis — 

" Petits pates de cheval, a I'Espagnole. 

Cheval a la mode. 

Escalopes de cheval. 

Filet de cheval a la brochu avec une poivarde bien liee. 

Semelles de cheval au gratin." 



286 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

On the other hand, the English army had its 
own discouragements. Night after night, Canadian 
irregulars and Indians crept up to Wolfe's lines 
to murder and scalp the outposts and sentries. 
Fever invaded the camp, and, more than all else, the 
serious illness of the General himself depressed the 
spirits of his men. Ceaseless anxiety over a hitherto 
ineffective campaign had played sad havoc with the 
nervous, high-strung temperament of the English 
commander; and the grey, inaccessible city still rose 
grimly to mock his schemes. Only the most in- 
vincible spirit could have borne so frail a body 
through those weeks of hope deferred. A vague 
melancholy marked the line of his tall ungainly 
figure ; but resolution, courage, endurance, deep 
design, clear vision, dogged will, and heroism shone 
forth from those searching eyes, making of no 
account the incongruities of the sallow features. 
Straight red hair, a nose thrust out like a wedge, 
and a chin falling back from an affectionate sort of 
mouth, made, by an antic of nature, the almost 
grotesque setting of those twin furnaces of daring 
resolve, which, in the end, fulfilled the yearning 
hopes of England. 

August had nearly gone, and the gallant General, 
only thirty-two years of age and already touched by 
the finger of death, lay sick in a farmhouse at Mont- 
morency. Success seemed even further away than it 



XIV "HERE DIED WOLFE" 287 

had been in the early summer. Yet, in consultation 
with his three brigadiers — Monckton, Townshend, 
and Murray — Wolfe had decided upon a new and 
desperate plan. 

" I know perfectly well you cannot cure me," he 
said to the surgeon ; " but pray make me up so that 
I may be without pain for a few days, and able to do 
my duty ; that is all I want." To Pitt he wrote — 
and this was his last despatch : " The obstacles we 
have met with in the operations of the campaign are 
much greater than we had reason to expect, or could 
foresee ; not so much from the number of the enemy 
(though superior to us), as from the natural strength 
of the country, which the Marquis de Montcalm 
seems wisely to depend upon. When I learned that 
succours of all kinds had been thrown into Quebec — 
that five battalions of regular troops, completed from 
the best inhabitants of the countrv, some of the 
troops of the colony, and every Canadian that was 
able to bear arms, besides several nations of savages, 
had taken the field in a very advantageous situation, 
— r I could not flatter myself that I should be able to 
reduce the place. I sought, however, an occasion to 
attack their army, knowing well tliat with these 
troops I was able to fight, and hoping that a victory 
might disperse them. ... I found myself so ill, and 
am still so weak, that I begged the general officers to 
consult together for the general utility. They are 



288 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

all of opinion that, as more ships and provisions are 
now got above the town, they should try, by convey- 
ing up a corps of four or five thousand men (which 
is nearly the whole strength of the army after the 
Points of Levi and Orleans are left in a proper state 
of defence), to draw the enemy from their present 
situation and bring them to an action. I have 
acquiesced in the proposal, and we are preparing to 
put it into execution." 

Carrying out this new plan, Wolfe first abandoned 
his camp at Montmorency, and for the moment con- 
centrated his strength at Levi and Orleans. Then 
Admiral Holmes's division in the river above the city 
was strengthened, and on the night of the 4th of 
September ships and transports, carrying five months' 
provisions, silently and successfully ran the blockade 
of the citadel's guns and anchored off Cap Rouge. 
On the 5th, Murray, Monckton, and Townshend 
marched seven battalions overland from Point Levi 
to the mouth of the river Etechemin opposite Sillery 
Cove ; and on the 6th, Wolfe found himself cruising 
above the town with twenty-two ships and thirty-six 
hundred men. 

Meanwhile, Montcalm and Vaudreull were greatly 
perplexed and all unconscious of the new designs 
and movements of the enemy. The position at the 
Point of Orleans still seemed to be strongly occupied, 
for every day Colonel Carleton paraded his men up 



XIV "HERE DIED WOLFE" 289 

and down in full view of the camp at Beauport ; the 
batteries at Point Levi thundered with their accus- 
tomed vehemence, and Admiral Saunders's division 
still lay threateningly in the basin below the city. 
Thus the weakening of these camps by twelve 
hundred men, who marched up the south shore to 
join Wolfe, was not perceived by Montcalm. Above 
Quebec, Bourlamaque was not less perplexed by the 
mysterious movements of Holmes's squadron and the 
army transports. Up and down the river they sailed, 
now threatening to land at Pointe-aux-Trembles, now 
at Sillery, and greatly confusing the right wing of 
the French army by their complex movements. 

At last the great night came, starlit and serene. 
The camp-fires of two armies spotted the shores of 
the wide river, and the ships lay like wild-fowl in 
coveys above the town. At Beauport, an untiring 
General of France, who, booted and spurred, through 
a hundred days had snatched but a broken sleep, in 
the ebb of a losing game, now longed for his adored 
Candiac, grieved for a beloved daughter's death, sent 
cheerful messages to his aged mother and to his wife, 
and by the deeper protests of his love, foreshadowed 
his own doom. At Cap Rouge, a dying soldier of 
England, unperturbed and valiant, reached out a 
finger to trace the last movement in the desperate 
campaign of a life that had opened in Flanders at 
the age of sixteen, now closing as he took from 
u 



igo 



OLD QUEBEC 



CHAP. 



his bosom the portrait of his affianced wife, and 
said to his old schoolfellow, " Give this to her, 
Jervis, for we shall meet no more." Then, passing 
from the deck, silent and steady, no signs of pain 
upon his face — so had the calm come to him as 
to nature, and to this beleaguered city, before the 




CAPTAIN JAMES COOK 
(Piloted Wolfe's Army up the Harbour of Quebec) 

whirlwind — he viewed the clustered groups of boats 
filled with the flower of his army, settled down into 
a menacing tranquillity. There lay the Light Infan- 
try, Bragg's, Kennedy's, Lascelles', Anstruther's Regi- 
ments, Eraser's Highlanders, and the much-loved, 
much-blamed Louisbourg Grenadiers. Steady, in- 
domitable, silent as cats, precise as mathematicians, 



XIV "HERE DIED WOLFE" 291 

he could trust them, as they loved his awkward, pain- 
twisted body and ugly red hair. " Damme, Jack, 
didst ever take hell in tow before?" said a sailor 
to his comrades as the marines, some days before, 
had grappled with a second flotilla of French 
fire-ships. " Nay, but Eve been in tow of Jimmy 
Wolfe's red head ; that's hell-fire, lad!" was the reply. 

From boat to boat the General's eye passed, 
then shifted to the ships — the Squirrel, the Leostaff, 
the Seahorse, and the rest — and lastly, to the spot 
where lay the army of Bougainville. Now an officer 
came towards him, who said, quietly, " The tide has 
turned, sir. " For reply, he made a swift motion 
towards the Sutherland's maintop shrouds, and almost 
instantly lanterns showed in them. In response, the 
crowded boats began to cast away. Immediately 
descending the General passed into his boat, drew to 
the front, and drifted in the current ahead of his 
gallant forces. 

It was two hours after midnight when the boats 
began to move, and slowly they ranged down the 
stream, silently steered and carried by the ebbing tide. 
No paddle, no creaking oarlock broke the stillness; 
but ever and anon the booming of a thirty-two 
pounder from the Point Levi battery echoed up the 
river walls. 

To a young midshipman beside him, the General 
turned and said, " How old are you, sir? " 



292 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

" Seventeen, sir," was the reply. 

" It is the most lasting passion," he said, musing. 
Then, after a few moments' silence, he repeated aloud 
these verses from Gray's Elegy — 

•' The curfew tolls the knell of parting day ; 
The lowing herds wind slowly o'er the lea ; 
The ploughman homeward plods his weary way. 
And leaves the world to darkness and to me. 
****** 

"The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power. 
And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave. 
Await alike the inevitable hour — 
The paths of glory lead but to the grave." 

" Gentlemen," he said, " I would rather have 
written those lines than take Quebec." 

Meanwhile, the tide had swept the foremost boats 
round the headland above the Anse du Foulon^ a tiny 
bay where Wolfe had determined to land. Suddenly, 
down from the dark heights there came a challenge : 
" ^i vive ? " 

" La France^'' answered an officer of Eraser's 
Highlanders, who had learned Erench in Elanders. 

" A quel Regiment ? " 

'' Be la Reine" responded the Highlander; and 
to disarm suspicion he added, " A^^ faites fas de 
bruit ^ ce sont les vivres'' From a deserter, the 
English had learned that a convoy of provisions was 

1 Now known as Wolfe's Cove. 



XIV "HERE DIED WOLFE" 293 

expected down the river that night ; and the officer's 
response deceived the sentry. 

The boats of the Light Infantry swung in to the 
shore. The twenty-four volunteers, who had been 
given the hazardous task of scaling the cliff and 
overpowering Vergor's guard at the top of the path, 
now commenced the ascent. On the strand below, 
the van of Wolfe's army breathlessly waited the 
signal to dash up the cliff to support their daring 
scouts. Presently quick ringing shots told the anxious 
General that his men had begun their work, and in 
a few moments a thin British cheer claimed pos- 
session of the rocky pathway up which Wolfe's 
battalions now swarmed in the misty grey of early 
morning. 

While this army climbed up the steep way to the 
Heights of Abraham, Admiral Saunders was bombard- 
ing Montcalm's intrenchments, and boats filled with 
marines and soldiers made a feint of landing on 
the Beauport flats, while shots, bombs, shells, and 
carcasses burst from Point Levi upon the town. 
At last, however, the French General grew suspicious 
of the naval manoeuvres, and in great agitation he 
rode towards the city. It was six in the morning as 
he galloped up the slope of the St. Charles, and in 
utter amazement gazed upon the scarlet ranks of 
Britain spread across the plain between himself and 
Bougainville, and nearer to him, on the crest, the 



294 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

white-coated battalion of Guienne which, the day 
before, he had ordered to occupy the very heights 
where Wolfe now stood. 

Montcalm summoned his army from the trenches 
at Beauport. In hot haste they crossed the St. 
Charles, passed under the northern rampart of the 
city, and in another hour the gates of St. Jean and 
St. Louis had emptied out upon the battlefield a 
flood of defenders. It was a gallant sight. The 
white uniforms of the brave regiments of the line — 
Royal Roussillon, La Sarre, Guienne, Languedoc, 
Beam — mixed with the dark, excitable militia, the 
sturdy burghers of the town, a band of coureurs 
de bois in their picturesque hunters' costume, and 
whooping Indians, painted and raging for battle. 
Bougainville had not yet arrived from Cap Rouge, 
and for some mysterious reason Vaudreuil lagged 
behind at Beauport. Nevertheless, Montcalm deter- 
mined to attack the English before they had time 
to intrench themselves. As for Wolfe, he desired 
nothing better, for while the two forces were numeri- 
cally not unequal, yet every man among the invaders 
could be depended upon, while even Montcalm had 
yet to test fully the undisciplined valour of his 
Canadian militia. 

Outside the city gates, the French at first took up 
their position on a rising ground in three divisions, 
having an irregular surface towards the St. Lawrence 




fi'grf'^""^ -'"'' 






XIV "HERE DIED WOLFE" 295 

on their left, and extending across the St. Louis and 
Ste. Foye roads towards the St. Charles on their 
right. Indian and Canadian marksmen were posted 
among the trees and bushes which skirted the plains. 
Montcalm himself took command of the centre, at 
the head of the regiment of Languedoc, supported 
by the battalion of Beam. M. de Senezergues led 
the left wing, composed of the regiments of Guienne 
and Royal Roussillon, supported by the militia of 
Three Rivers. The right, under M. de Saint-Ours, 
consisted of the battalion of La Sarre and the militia 
of Quebec and Montreal. 

Wolfe had first drawn up his army with its front 
towards the St. Louis road, and its right towards 
the city, but afterwards he altered his position. Con- 
fronting the French formation Brigadier Townshend, 
with Amherst's and the Light Infantry, and Colonel 
Burton, with a battalion of the Royal Americans, 
made up the British left, holding a position near 
the Ste. Foye road, to meet the advance of 
Bougainville from the west. The centre, under 
Murray, was composed of Lascelles', Anstruther's, 
and Eraser's Highlanders; while Monckton com- 
manded the right, which included Bragg's, Otway's, 
Kennedy's, and the Louisbourg Grenadiers, at whose 
head, after he had passed along the line, Wolfe 
placed himself for the charge. 

At eight o'clock the French sharpshooters opened 



2o6 OLD QUEBEC 



CHAP. 



fire upon the British left, and skirmishers were 
thrown out to hold them in check, or drive them 
from the houses where they sheltered themselves 
and galled Townshend's men. Three field-pieces, 
brought from the city, opened on the British brigades 
with roundshot and canister. The invaders, how- 
ever, made no return, and were ordered to lie down. 
No restlessness, no anxiety marked those scarlet 
columns, whose patience and restraint had been for 
two months in the crucible of a waiting game. 
There was no man in all Wolfe's army but knew 
that final victory or ruin hung upon the issue of 
that 13th of September. 

From bushes, trees, coverts, and fields of grain 
came a ceaseless hail of fire, and there fell upon the 
ranks a doggedness, a quiet anger, which settled into 
grisly patience. These men had seen the stars go 
down, the-cold mottled light of dawn break over the 
battered city and the heights of Charlesbourg ; they 
had watched the sun come up, and then steal away 
behind slow-travelling clouds and hanging mist; 
they had looked over the unreaped cornfields, and 
the dull slovenly St. Charles, knowing full well that 
endless leagues of country, north and south, east and 
west, now lay for the last time in the balance. The 
rocky precipice of the St. Lawrence cut of? all possi- 
bility of retreat, and their only help was in themselves. 
Yet no one faltered. 



XIV "HERE DIED WOLFE" 297 

At ten o'clock Montcalm's three columns moved 
forward briskly, making a wild rattle — two columns 
moving towards the left and one towards the right, 
firing obliquely and constantly as they advanced. 
Then came Wolfe's command to rise, and his army 
stood up and waited, their muskets loaded with an 
extra ball. Suppressed rage filled the ranks as they 
stood there and took that damnable fire without 
being able to return a shot. Minute after minute 
passed. Then came the sharp command to advance. 
Again the line was halted, and still the withering dis- 
charge of musketry fell upon the long silent palisade 
of red. 

At last, when the French were within forty yards, 
Wolfe raised his sword, a command rang down the 
long line of battle, and with a crash as of one terrible 
cannon-shot, the British muskets sang out together. 
After the smoke had cleared a little, another volley 
followed with almost the same precision. A light 
breeze lifted the smoke and mist, and a wayward sun- 
light showed Montcalm's army retreating like a long 
white wave from a rocky shore. 

Thus checked and confounded, the French army 
trembled and fell back in broken order. Then, with 
the order to charge, an exultant British cheer arose, 
the skirling challenge of the bagpipes and the wild 
slogan of the Highlanders sounding high over all. 
Like sickles of death, the flashing broadswords of the 



298 OLD QUEBEC chap, xiv 

clansmen clove through and broke the battalions of 
La Sarre, and the bayonets of the Forty-Seventh 
scattered the soldiers of Languedoc into flying 
companies. 

Early in the action Wolfe had been hit in the 
wrist by a bullet, but he concealed this wound with his 
handkerchief A few minutes later, however, as he 
pressed forward, sword in hand, at the head of the 
charging Louisbourg Grenadiers, a musket ball struck 
him in the breast. They bore him, mortally wounded, 
to the rear. 

" It's all over with me," he murmured. The mist 
of death was already gathering in his eyes. 

" They run ; see how they run ! " exclaimed 
Lieutenant Brown of the Grenadiers, who supported 
him. " Who run ? " demanded the General like one 
roused from sleep. " The enemy, sir," responded 
the subaltern. *' Go, one of you, to Colonel Burton," 
returned Wolfe, with an earnestness that detained the 
spirit in his almost lifeless body ; " tell him to march 
Webb's regiment down to the St. Charles to cut off 
their retreat from the bridge." 

Then, overcome at last, he turned on his side 
and whispered, " Now, God be praised, I will die in 
peace ! 



CHAPTER XV 

MURRAY AND DE LEVIS 

Within the beleaguered city the sights and sounds 
of battle caused sickening excitement. An enemy 
who had gained the heights by such determined 
valour was destined for victory ; and the weary 
garrison and townsfolk, as they watched and waited 
anxiously on the ramparts, were more than half 
prepared for the view presently to meet their eyes. 
A fresh wind lifting the thick clouds of smoke 
from the battlefield revealed the scattered legions of 
France in flight before a conquering army, wildly 
dashing towards the city gates or the bridge of boats 
crossing the St. Charles. Montcalm sought in 
vain to rally his stricken battalions, and was borne 
backward in the confusion of their mad retreat, until 
suddenly, pierced by a bullet, he sank in the saddle. 
Bravely keeping his seat with support from a soldier 
on either side, he succeeded in entering the city by 
the St. Louis Gate. Here the excited crowd, which 
had gathered' to hear the latest news from the field, 

299 



300 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

raised a troubled cry at sight of their vanquished 
chief pale and streaming with blood. '■'■ Mon Dieu, 
O mon Dieu ! le Marquis est tue ! " they wailed. 
"It is nothing, it is nothing, do not distress your- 
selves for me, my good friends," responded the 
broken hero. 

His black, charger slowly bore him down the 
Grande Allee and along the Rue St. Louis, leading a 
sad procession to the house of Arnoux the surgeon. 
Being carried inside, he was told that his wound was 
mortal. " How long have I to live ? " he asked. 
" Twelve hours perhaps," responded the surgeon. 
" So much the better," said Montcalm ; " I am happy 
that 1 shall not live to see the surrender of Quebec." 
Then, turning to Commandant de Ramezay and the 
colonel of the Regiment of Royal Roussillon, who 
stood by, he said : " Gentlemen, to your keeping I 
commend the honour of France. Endeavour to 
secure the retreat of my army to-night beyond Cap 
Rouge. As for myself, I shall pass the night with 
God, and prepare for death." 

Yet ever mindful of the wretched people who 
hung upon him, he addressed this note to the com- 
mander of the English army — 

" Monsieur, the humanity of the English sets my 
mind at peace concerning the fate of the French 
prisoners and the Canadians. Feel towards them as 
they have caused me to feel. Do not let them per- 




/..yfliu/aru uat/erfwr o^^yl'uffi/reaC . 



XV 



MURRAY AND DE LEVIS 



301 



ceive that they have changed masters. Be their 
protector as I have been their father." 

By dawn the next morning his gallant soul had 
fled. And when another day had gone, and night 
came again, a silent funeral passed, by the light of 
a flambeau, to the chapel of the Ursulines for the 




NtW KENT CaTE 



lonely obsequies. A bursting shell had ploughed a 
deep trench along the wall of the convent, and there 
they sadly laid him — fitting rest for one whose life 
had been spent amid the din and doom of war. In 
1833 his skull was exhumed ; and to-day it is rever- 
ently exposed in the almoners' room of the Ursuline 
convent — all that remains of as fine a figure, as 
noble a son of his race as the years have seen. 

Here also an interesting tablet, erected by Lord 
Aylmer in 1835, bears the sympathetic inscription — 



302 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

HONNEUR 
A 

Montcalm 

le destin en lui derobant 

La Victoire 

L'a recompense par 

Une Morte Glorieuse. 

Besides Montcalm, the French army lost its second 
and third in command, De Senezergues having ex- 
pired on one of the English ships, while M. de Saint- 
Ours was killed in the same bloody charge in which 
Wolfe also met his death. The French losses in 
killed and wounded numbered almost fifteen hundred 
officers and men, the British record being fifty-eight 
killed, and five hundred and ninety-seven wounded. 

When Wolfe was slain the chief command of 
the British army in Canada had passed to Brigadier 
Townshend.^ Expecting every moment to be attacked 
by Bougainville, Townshend called back his battalions 
from the charge, and drew them up anew, a move- 
ment scarcely accomplished before Bougainville's 
army was seen advancing from Cap Rouge. Bougain- 
ville, however, soon perceived signs of Montcalm's 
defeat, and unwilling to risk an engagement with a 
wholly victorious enemy, he retreated without a blow. 

Meanwhile, Governor Vaudreuil had held a council 
of war in the hornwork which protected the St. Charles 
bridge. Roused now to intelligent action, he was for 

1 Afterwards Marquis of Townshend. 



XV MURRAY AND DE LEVIS 303 

making an immediate junction with Bougainville 
and attacking Townshend before the English posi- 
tion could be strengthened. Bigot recommended 
the same course ; but all the other officers were 
against it, and the brave but vacillating Vaudreuil 
was overborne by their counsel. A despairing note 
was despatched to the little garrison at Quebec ; 
and an army that still outnumbered the British 
forces began a march thus described by one of 
the participants : " It was not a retreat, but an 
abominable flight", with such disorder and confusion 
that, had the English known it, three hundred men 
sent after vis would have been sufficient to cut all 
our army to pieces. The soldiers were all mixed, 
scattered, dispersed, and running as hard as they 
could, as if the English army were at their heels." 
Their tents were left standing at the Beauport camp, 
where in their inglorious haste they had even aban- 
doned their heavy baggage. Passingthrough Charles- 
bourg, Lorette, and St. Augustin, by the evening of 
the T5th they had covered the thirty miles interven- 
ing between Quebec and the Jacques-Cartier river. 

This desertion by the army was a cruel blow to 
those who still manned the ramparts of the city. For 
more than two months they had mended the breaches 
and fought the fires kindled by the guns of Point 
Levi ; they had stood by their feeble batteries for 
weary weeks, toiling night and day on half-rations. 



304 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

And now ignominious abandonment was their re- 
ward ! Of the total population within the walls, 
twenty-six hundred were women and children, ten 
hundred were invalids, while the able-bodied de- 
fenders, all told, numbered less than a thousand, and 
even these were worn out by privations. 

De Ramezay, the commandant, called a council 
of war which fourteen officers attended, and all of 
these but one were in favour of capitulation. The 
citizens assembled at the house of M. Daine the 
Mayor, and drew up a petition praying that De 
Ramezay would not expose the city and its inhabit- 
ants to the further horrors of assault. The citizens' 
memorial recited the tribulations they had already 
undergone, and pointed out that neither a bombard- 
ment continued for sixty-three days, nor ceaseless 
fatigue and anxiety had sufficed to kill their spirit ; 
that though exhausted by famine, yet in the constant 
hope of final victory they had forgotten the gnawings 
of their hunger. But now, deserted by the army, they 
were not justified in making further sacrifices. Even 
with the most careful distribution, only eight days' 
rations remained in the city. Moreover, a conquering 
army was encamped between Quebec and its source 
of supply. While there was yet time, they pleaded, 
honourable terms of capitulation should be demanded. 

All this time the milice de la vilky naturally brave, 
but unwisely led, werefleeing to their neglected home- 



XV MURRAY AND DE LEVIS 305 

steads. Some even crossed over to the enemy's camp; 
and a sergeant actually deserted with the keys of the 
city gates in his pockets. Meantime Townshend, 
fully aware of the danger of his position, determined 
to force the city v/ithout delay if the enemy should 
show a resolute face. In a few weeks at the most, 
the approach of winter would compel the fleet to 
leave the river, and should the English army then 
find itself outside the walls, the fruits of the Battle 
of the Plains would be entirely lost. Accordingly, he 
was ready to grant almost any terms of capitulation. 
The English trenches drew closer and closer to 
the walls, and on the evening of the 17th the fleet 
made a movement as if to bombard the Lower 
Town, while a column of troops threatened Palace 
Gate. The drums of the garrison beat the alarm ; 
but the citizens failed to rally, and in despair De 
Ramezay at last resolved to surrender. A white flag 
showed upon the ramparts, and as the stars came 
out, an envoy appeared in the English camp to ask 
for terms. At eight o'clock the next morning, 
September 1 8th, the articles of capitulation had been 
signed by De Ramezay, Townshend, and Admiral 
Saunders. Their provisions were, in brief: That 
the garrison should be accorded the honours of war, 
and march out bearing their arms and baggage, with 
flying colours and beating drums; that the troops 
should be conveyed to France ; that the inhabitants, 



3o6 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

on laying down their arms, should retain their houses, 
property, and privileges, at least until the treaty of 
peace should be signed by the sovereigns of England 
and France. Artillery and military stores were to 
be surrendered ; the sick were to be cared for, and 
guards were to be posted to protect the convents and 
churches against possible outrage. 

The general orders for the i8th of September 
describe, prospectively, the formal cession of the for- 
tress town — 

'■'■ The gates to be taken possession of by Colonel Murray 
and three companies of Grenadiers, after which the hour 
will be appointed when the army should march in. Fifty 
of the Royal Artillery, officers in proportion, one field-piece 
with a lighted match following them, will march to the 
Grand Parade, followed by the Commanding Officer and 
his party, sent to take possession of the town, to whom all 
the keys of the forts will be delivered, from which party 
officers' guards will immediately be sent to take possession 
of all ports and outlets from the town. . . . During this 
time the Commanding Officer of Artillery will hoist the 
Union flag of Great Britain at the most conspicuous place 
of the garrison ; the flag-gun will be left on the Grand 
Parade, fronting the main guard." 

Thus passed Quebec into British hands. And the 
surrender was made none too soon ; for even as the 
garrison yielded, horsemen dashed up to the city gates 
to announce the return of the French army. M. de 
Levis, hurrying from Montreal, when the danger of 




Jfr//t////if //i>t/frrn>r ef^yeuf /^c^r^ ^ i///J,t // i-/ff tit ..yue/'ri- /7j'/. 



XV MURRAY AND DE LEVIS 307 

Amherst's advance no longer threatened, had come 
upon the retreating army of Vaudreuil soon after 
its arrival at Jacques-Cartier. Notwithstanding their 
appalling want of discipline, he soon made his 
presence felt among the fugitives, and despatching 
courtiers to De Ramezay to admonish him against 
surrender, this worthy successor of Montcalm 
marched on to the relief of Quebec. But it was 
now too late ; for when, having made a junction 
with Bougainville at Cap Rouge, De Levis drew 
near the city, he saw the red flag of Britain floating 
from the bastion of Cape Diamond. 

On the 19th of September, the day after the capitu- 
lation, a fast frigate left for England, bearing the news 
of victory, together with the embalmed body of the 
gallant general to whom it was due. Though the 
event was celebrated there with bonfires and shouts 
of triumph, yet the nation's tears could not be 
restrained. "The incidents of dramatic fiction," 
writes Walpole in his Memoirs of George 11. , "could 
not be conducted with more address to lead an 
audience from despondency to sudden exultation, 
than accident prepared to excite the passions of a 
whole people. They despaired, they triumphed, and 
they wept; for Wolfe had fallen in the hour of 
conquest. Joy, curiosity, astonishment was painted 
on every countenance. The more they inquired, 
the more their admiration rose. Not an incident 



3o8 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

but was heroic and affecting." Wolfe's body was 
laid beside that of his father in Greenwich church ; 
and Parliament erected a monument to his honour 
in Westminster Abbey. On the Plains of Abraham, 
also, a large stone was set up to mark the spot where 
he had fallen; but in 1835 this primitive memorial 
was superseded by a beautiful pillar, upon which 
Lord Aylmer, then Governor-General, caused to be 
inscribed the simple legend — 

"Here Died 

Wolfe 
Victorious." 

Eight years before, in 1827, Lord Dalhousie laid 
the first stone of the beautiful obelisk overlooking 
what is now known as Dufferin Terrace, to com- 
memorate the heroism of Wolfe and Montcalm, 
and bearing this impartial inscription — 

Wolfe Montcalm 

Mortem virtus communem 

Famam Historia 

monumentum posteritas 

Dedit 

a. D, 1827. 

But to return to the newly conquered city. It 
was indeed a scene of desolation. The Lower Town 
was a heap of ruins, and the streets were all but im- 
passable. In the Upper Town, the Bishop's Palace 



XV 



MURRAY AND DE LEVIS 



309 



was in ruins, and of the Cathedral only the shattered 
walls remained. The Church of the Recollets, which 
faced upon the Place d'Armes, was a wreck of 
masonry, while that of the Jesuits was battered 
beyond repair. The three convents, Ursuline, Hotel- 
Dieu, and Hospital General, although further re- 
moved, had not escaped the terrific cannonade. The 




CHURCH OF THE RECOLLETS AND LA GRANDE PLACE 



Jesuit College, situated in the midst of the town, 
seemed to have suffered least. As for the inhabit- 
ants, they had seen their possessions dissolve in 
smoke, and were now for the most part dependent 
upon the English garrison for provisions ; in truth, 
it is difficult to exaggerate the misery and ruin which 
became the care of the new garrison. 

Nor were the French the only sufferers. At the 
first sign of winter the EngHsh fleet departed for 



3IO OLD QUEBEC chap. 

home, Admiral Saunders and General Townshend 
sailing away on the 22nd of October, followed four 
days later by the wounded Brigadier Monckton with 
the remaining ships. All available stores had been 
landed, but General Murray was compelled to limit 
the number of his garrison owing to the scarcity of 
supplies ; and now, with about seven thousand men 
on short rations, he must hold Quebec until English 
ships could return to his rehef in spring. Such was 
the doubtful situation in which Murray stood in 
November; and to add to his danger, De Levis and 
Bougainville lay encamped only a few leagues away, 
with a force far more numerous than his own, and 
untroubled by anxiety as to supplies. 

The hardships of that winter are detailed in the 
journals of General Murray and Captain Knox. The 
first distress was a famine of firewood, to meet which 
detachments of soldiers were detailed to fell trees in 
the woods of Ste. Foye. They harnessed themselves 
to the timber like horses, and dragged it thence over 
the snow to the city. The storms and keen frosts of 
a Canadian winter were a painful experience for the 
ill-clothed soldiery, who adopted the most eccentric 
devices to keep themselves from freezing. " Our 
guards at the grand parade," writes Knox, " make 
a most grotesque appearance in their different dresses ; 
and our inventions to guard us against the extreme 
. rigours of this climate are various beyond imagina- 



XV MURRAY AND DE LEVIS 311 

tion. The uniformity, as well as the nicety, of the 
clean, methodical soldiers is buried in the rough, 
fur-wrought garb of the frozen Laplander ; and we 
rather resemble a masquerade than a body of regular 
troops, insomuch that I have frequently been accosted 
by my acquaintances, whom, though their voices were 
familiar to me, I could not discover, or conceive who 
they were." So long as the troops relied upon their 
regimental uniforms, the Highlanders necessarily 
suffered most of all from cold, until the nuns of the 
Hospital took pity upon them and fell to knitting 
long woollen hose. 

By the first week in December it became necessary 
to relieve the guard every hour instead of every two 
hours ; but even then frozen ears and fingers and 
toes were common casualties. Discipline relaxed, 
and the soldiers began to solace themselves by 
debauch. Drunkenness became so frequent that 
Murray cancelled the tavern licenses ; and any man 
convicted of that offence received twenty lashes every 
morning until he divulged the name of the liquor- 
seller. Theft and pillage were strenuously dealt with, 
one man expiating his ofi^ence upon the citadel gibbet. 
Finding that many of his soldiers were deserting, the 
General banished from the city certain priests whom 
he suspected of intrigue. On the other hand, he 
proved a generous friend to those well-disposed 
Canadians who had laid down their arms and main- 



312 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

tained their neutrality, allowing them all the liberty 
and freedom consistent with the dangers of his own 
predicament. No French inhabitants, however, were 
allowed to work upon the batteries or fortifications, 
to walk upon the ramparts, or to frequent the streets 
after dark without a lantern ; and if found abroad 
after tattoo-beating they were arrested. 

So great was the fear of treason and surprise that a 
strong force constantly held the gates, the guard- 
houses always containing about a thousand men, 
who permitted none to pass without a permit 
from the General. To protect the approaches of the 
town, strong outposts were maintained at Ste. Foye 
and Lorette ; and on the other side of the river, at 
Point Levi, a detachment of two hundred men held 
the south shore against surprises. As the winter wore 
away, it became increasingly evident that an attempt 
to recapture Quebec would not long be delayed. 
But although more than a thousand of the garrison 
were on the sick list, owing mainly to the tainted 
water of the wells, the laborious commandant kept 
good heart for the struggle, being in temperament 
cheerful, generous, and full of resource. Events 
proved, moreover, that he was daring even to the 
point of indiscretion. 

It was now March, and the campaign opened with 
a series of skirmishes round the newly-fortified Eng- 
lish outposts. Sharp fights took place at Point Levi 



XV MURRAY AND DE LEVIS 313 

and at Lorette ; and Captain M' Donald, with five 
hundred men, even ventured as far up the river 
as St. Augustin to attack the strong post which 
Bougainville had established at Le Calvaire. Within 
the walls of Quebec, fever, dysentery, and scurvy 
grew so malignant that by the middle of April hardly 
more than three thousand men were fit for duty; and 
all the while evidence of the concentration of the 
French forces grew more apparent. So long before 
as the 26th of January, Lieutenant Montresor had 
been despatched over the snow with twelve rangers 
to apprise General Amherst of the plight of the 
city; and on the 21st of April the battered 
schooner Lawrence, the only craft upon which Murray 
could lay hands, was sent eastward to hasten Lord 
Colville's fleet when it should arrive in the river. 

Still, the vigilant defenders of Quebec were only 
half aware of the threatening danger ; and even as 
the Lawrence raced down the stream to bring help, 
the French army was advancing upon the city. 
Starting at Montreal in a fleet of bateaux, the forces 
of De Levis and Vaudreuil had picked up the river 
garrisons as they advanced ; and by the time they 
arrived at Pointe-aux-Trembles, their numbers had 
swelled to nine thousand men, while no word of their 
approach had as yet reached Quebec. On the night 
of the 26th of April, however, a remarkable incident 
brought timely warning. 



314 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

Darkness lay upon the river, and as they saw the 
creaking ice-floes sweeping up and down with stream 
or tide — a condition of the river known in Quebec 
as " the chariot," — the watchmen shivered, and 
thanked the fates which kept them on dry land on 
such a night. Suddenly a cry of distress blew up 
from the river — the moaning of the wind, thought 
the guard who paced the quay of the Cul-de-sac. 
But again the plaint fell upon his ears ; and as 
he peered through the darkness, holding his breath 
to listen, he knew it was a human voice. A 
boat put out amid the drifting ice, and guided by 
the cries, the sailors found a man half dead upon 
a tiny floe. With difficulty he was rescued and 
carried ashore ; and when cordials had revived him 
he told his story. He was a sergeant of artillery in 
the army come to retake Quebec. In attempting to 
land at Cap Rouge his boat had come to grief ; all his 
companions had been drowned before his eyes; but he 
had contrived to drag himself upon the drifting ice.^ 
It was three o'clock in the morning when General 
Murray was awakened to receive this disturbing 
news. At once the reveille was sounded, and while 
it was yet dark the troops stood under arms. At 

1 This romantic story is not fully established. Parkman cites it as historical, 
but Kingsford considers it disproved by General Murray's yournal. Its original 
source is the diary of the Chevalier de Levis, but it also appears in The 
Campaign of 1 760, attributed to the Chevalier Johnstone, Montcalm's Scotch 
aide-de'camp. 



XV MURRAY AND DE LEVIS 315 

dawn a strong detachment marched out through the 
St. John and St. Louis gates, skirted along the plains, 
and came to the decHvity in which, at Ste. Foye, 
the plateau of Quebec falls away to the lowlands. 
Here, in a strong position, they awaited the enemy. 




OLD FRENCH HOUSE, ST. JOHN STREET 

On swept De Levis to the city he had sworn to 
recapture; and as his army emerged from the 
wood, the strengthened outpost of Ste. Foye opened 
its guns upon them. Discouraged by the brisk 
cannonade and musketry fire, De Levis, who was 
ignorant of the comparative weakness of the English 



3i6 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

force, made no attempt to storm the heights, but 
ordered his men to fall back, his new plan being to 
outflank the enemy by a night march. As for the 
English, seeing how impossible it was to hold the 
outpost against so large an army, they spiked their 
guns, destroyed their works, and finally withdrew to 
the city. 

Once again Quebec was on the eve of invasion, 
and as Murray contemplated his serious position, it 
is hardly a matter of wonder that his plan of defence 
savoured more of boldness than of prudence. The 
breached ramparts offered but a feeble defence ; the 
frost-bound earth made it impossible to protect the 
city by an intrenched camp ; and the commissariat 
department could not sustain a long investment. 
The situation is well summarised in the General's 
letter to Pitt : " The enemy was greatly superior in 
number, it is true; but when I considered that our 
little army was in the habit of beating the enemy, 
and had a very fine train of field artillery ; that 
shutting ourselves at once within the walls was 
putting all upon the single chance of holding out for 
a considerable time in a wretched fortification, I 
resolved to give them battle ; and half an hour after 
six in the morning we marched with all the force I 
could muster, namely, three thousand men." 

It was the 28th of April, and the snow still lay 
upon the ground. Murray's army marched out 



XV MURRAY AND DE LEVIS 317 

through the gates in two columns, and took up a 
strong position on that roHing mound upon the 
Plains which was known as Les But tes-a-N even. 
The force was disposed as follows : The right wing, 
consisting of the divisions of Amherst, Anstruther, 
and Webb, with the second battalion Royal Ameri- 
cans, was commanded by Colonel Burton ; Colonel 
Eraser was in charge of the left, which comprised 
Kennedy's and Bragg's divisions, and Lascelles' 
Highlanders; while Otway's and the third battalion 
Royal Americans, commanded by Colonel Young, 
formed a corps of reserve. Major Bailing, with 
the Light Infantry, covered the right ; and Hazen's 
Rangers and a company of volunteers, under Cap- 
tain Donald M'Donald, were on the left. Each 
battalion had two field-pieces. 

As the English troops were thus forming, Mur- 
ray rode ahead to reconnoitre the enemy's position. 
Their vanguard had already reached the brink of the 
cliff above the Anse du Foulon, where they were 
hastily engaged in throwing up redoubts ; and further 
away, the main body was moving along the road from 
Ste. Foye. Even as he looked, the two foremost 
brigades swung across the plateau towards Sillery 
woods. Now, thought Murray, was the most favour- 
able moment for attack, De Levis being still on the 
march ; and hurrying back, he ordered his columns 
to the attack. With a cheer the red lines swept 



3i8 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

forward, dragging their howitzers and field-pieces 
through the heavy slush of mud and snow ; and when 
at length they halted and opened fire at short range, 
their artillery caused such disorder in the forming 
French lines, that De Levis was forced to withdraw the 
brigades composing the left wing to the cover of the 
woods upon their flank. The English mistook this 
movement for a retreat, and pressing forward Mur- 
ray soon found himself on less advantageous ground. 
His right division stood knee-deep in a meadow of 
melting snow, where the guns could only be served 
with the greatest difficulty, and upon this disabled 
wing the French left once more swept out of the 
woods. Before their impetuous rush the Light 
Infantry gave way, and so great was the disorder of 
this brigade that it could take no further part in 
the action. The English left was meeting a similar 
repulse, and from Sillery wood, where the French 
had taken temporary cover, there issued such a storm 
of musketry, that Eraser's column recoiled before it. 
Murray was outnumbered all along the line, and 
when De Levis overlapped both left and right and 
threatened his enemy's flank, the English General 
gave the order to retire. The guns, however, 
being immovably fixed in the snow and mud, had 
to be spiked and abandoned. With muttered curses 
the grisly veterans retreated unwillingly towards the 
city walls ; but they had inflicted on De Levis so 



XV 



MURRAY AND DE LEVIS 



319 



decided a check that he judged it prudent to refrain 
from pursuit. 

Such was the battle of Ste. Foye, without doubt the 
most severe of the campaign. The English lost more 
than a thousand, or more than a third of the whole 
army ; the losses of the French have been variously 
estimated, but they were probably as heavy as those 




MANOR HOUSE, SILLERY 



of their foe. Officially reported by De Levis, they 
numbered eight hundred and thirty-three. 

It is a pretty walk to-day, out through St. John's 
Gate and along the Ste. Foye road. For a mile or 
two the leafy avenue is lined with villas till the pictu- 
resque heights are reached, overlooking the valley of 
the St. Charles, where Murray and De Levis met 
in fateful conflict. Here, where the April snow 



320 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

was dyed by the blood of two valorous armies, is 
set up a tall pillar of iron, surmounted by a statue 
of Bellona, the gift of Prince Napoleon Bonaparte 
in 1855. 



Aux Braves 1 



This is its simple inscription — to the brave of 
both nations whose sons contended for the mastery 
of a wide dominion. The heroes of Quebec, French 
and English, have shared more than one common 
monument, and this community of interest and tra- 
dition, nursed from wise beginnings, and accepted 
as a matter of course for a century and a half of 
good understanding, has with a subtle and gracious 
alchemy helped to solve a national problem. 

The defeat of Murray at Ste. Foye is sometimes 
called the Second Battle of the Plains. Its issue was 
so far from decisive that De Levis no longer thought 
of redeeming Quebec by assault, believing that if the 
city was again to fall into the hands of France, it 
could only be through regular investment and siege. 
Accordingly, moving his lines forward to the high 
ground of Les Buttes-a-NeveUy he there began his 
intrench ments. Meanwhile, the soldiers in the city 
were working night and day to better its defences. 
Barricades were erected in the streets, fascines 

1 Aux braves de 1760, erige par la Societe St. Jean Baptiste de Quebec. 



XV MURRAY AND DE LEVIS 321 

strengthened the ramparts, the St. Jean and St. Louis 
gates were closed, the latter being placed under the 
protection of an outwork. Men and officers alike 
toiled ceaselessly, harnessing themselves to the guns, 
and working on the batteries with pickaxe and spade. 
Even the wounded demanded employment, the con- 
valescent filling sand-bags for the fortifications, while 
those in the hospitals made wadding for the cannon 
which night and day belched shot and shell upon the 
besiegers' trenches. When, however, the enemy's 
field-pieces were in position, the city once more 
tasted the horror of bombardment. But within the 
walls, in spite of scurvy, fever, and short rations, 
the most resolute spirit prevailed. Murray's energy 
and resource fired the enthusiasm of his men, who 
saw that only the failure of food and ammunition 
could bring them to defeat. Both besiegers and 
besieged dwelt in hourly expectation of ships from 
Europe — De Levis, because he had sent to France 
for help at once upon Montcalm's defeat, and 
Murray because the return of the English fleet was 
part of the first plan of campaign. Both knew that 
the fate of Quebec belonged to the fleet arriving first. 
At last, on the 9th of May, a ship of war was de- 
scried in the river. The gaunt and toil-worn garrison 
were almost prostrate with excitement. Slowly the 
frigate beat up into the basin before the town, not 
yet displaying her ensign. Through a mishap to the 



322 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

halyards, no flag floated over the high bastion of Cape 
Diamond ; but to make the stranger declare herself, 
Murray ordered a sailor to climb up the citadel flag- 
staff^ with the colours. Immediately the Union Jack 
ran up to the frigate's masthead, and the pent-up 
feelings of the garrison found relief It was the 
Leostaff^ no stranger, indeed, to Quebec ; and she 
brought news that Colville's fleet was already in the 
river. " The gladness of the troops," writes Captain 
Knox, "is not to be expressed. Both officers and 
soldiers mounted the parapets in the face of the 
enemy, and huzzaed with their hats in the air for 
almost an hour. The garrison, the enemy's camp, 
the bay, and circumjacent country resounded with our 
shouts and the thunder of our artillery, for the 
gunners were so elated that they did nothing but 
fire and load for a considerable time." 

The French commander, however, was not the 
man to abandon the siege on account of a single 
warship, for as yet he did not know that the Leostaff 
was but the herald of further arrivals ; and his guns 
continued to hurl grenades and roundshot into the 
city. The English batteries returned their fire with 
so much violence that De Levis again determined to 
try and carry the place by direct assault. Scaling- 
ladders and battering-rams were made ready, but no 
opportunity came to use them. Another week of 
vigorous siege passed; and at nightfall, on the 15th 



XV MURRAY AND DE LEVIS 323 

of May, to the unspeakable joy of the harassed 
garrison, the Vanguard and the Diana, British ships 
of war, came to anchor in the basin. Next morning 
the three vessels made their way up the river past 
Quebec, and attacked the French squadron which 
had brought the army of De Levis from Montreal. 
These were the ships, it will be remembered, which 
withdrew up the river on the approach of Holmes's 
fleet in the summer of 1759. The naval engage- 
ment was fierce but decisive, the French commander 
Vauquelin behaving with the utmost gallantry, and 
refusing to strike his flag even when his powder 
was spent and his ship a wreck. "Our ships," 
says Knox, in describing the battle, "forced La 
Pomone ashore and burned her, then pursued the 
others ; drove V Atalanta ashore near Pointe-aux- 
Trembles, and set her on fire ; took and destroyed 
all the rest, except a small sloop of war which 
escaped to Lake St. Peter." On the English side, 
the Leostaff w^2is, wrecked on the rocks. 

To De Levis the destruction of the French 
squadron was the greatest possible catastrophe, for the 
ships carried his supplies. No alternative but retreat 
remained ; and next morning, when Murray marched 
out for a sortie, he found the French camp deserted 
by all save the sick and wounded, whom in a letter 
left behind De Levis had commended to his care. 
Their tents still stood upon the Plains, and their guns 



324 OLD QUEBEC chap, xv 

and mortars gaped silently in the trenches ; but the 
French army had already passed over the Cap Rouge, 
and the fourth siege of Quebec had come to an end. 
So, too, had the ancten regime: for although 
Bougainville still held his strong position at Isle- 
aux-Noix, and Montreal, whither Vaudreuil had 
transferred his government, was not subdued till 
the 8th of September, 1760, when three British 
columns under Amherst, Murray, and Haviland 
compelled Vaudreuil to make a formal surrender 
of that city and of the whole of Canada; still, 
the key of New France had passed into English 
hands. Quebec, the Gibraltar of America, was never 
more to salute the Bourbon Hlies,' and French em- 
pire in the Western world had ceased to be. 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE FIRST YEARS OF BRITISH RULE 

The period which immediately succeeded the capitu- 
lation of Canada is known as the regne militaire ; but 
the administration so sternly named was remarkable 
for the most careful equity. Allowing for circum- 
stances which made military rule a necessity, it was 
in fact an era of almost unexampled tenderness ; for 
though still on the threshold of her colonial empire, 
England already realised that the lightest yoke 
is the longest borne. She had annexed the vast 
domain of Canada, and the sentiment of its seventy 
thousand French inhabitants was her first con- 
cern. These must be won to a new loyalty and 
schooled in the free institutions of a progressive 
nation. 

The note of the new administration was struck in 
the general orders issued by General Amherst, Sep- 
tember 9th, 1760: "The General is confident that 
when the troops are informed that the country is 
the King's, they will not disgrace themselves by the 

3^5 



326 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

least appearance of inhumanity, or by unsoldieriike 
behaviour in taking any plunder, more especially as 
the Canadians become now good subjects, and will 
feel the good effects of His Majesty's protection." 
This confidence in a policy of conciliation was fully 
justified by the event. 

Ever since the Battle of the Plains, the habitants 
and the citizens of Quebec had been slowly but 
steadily settling to allegiance, and now, when the 
fall of Montreal had destroyed the last vestige of 
French dominion, the people generally came forward 
to enroll themselves. And that they were received 
into the British fold with something more than a 
perfunctory welcome is proved by an extract from 
Amherst's instructions : " These newly acquired sub- 
jects," he writes to General Gage, " when they have 
taken the oath, are as much His Majesty's subjects as 
any of us, and are, so long as they remain deserving 
of it, entitled to the same protection. I would have 
you particularly give it in charge to the troops to 
live in good harmony and brotherhood with them, 
and avoid all differences soever." 

Naturally enough, the recent belligerents were 
deprived of their weapons ; and commissioners went 
through the different parishes administering the oath 
and collecting arms. A firelock was left to each 
native militia officer, and, under certain conditions, 
the rank and file also could retain guns for hunting. 




' tj/h'rn.'^art/.T I'/tyM/irrpueM- (y/^mimif/ie/iJ J 



XVI FIRST YEARS OF BRITISH RULE 327 

The Canadians were allowed the free exercise of their 
religion ; and although nothing was said about the 
retention of the French language, its employment 
followed as a matter of course, since only the soldiers 
of the garrison knew English. The adjustment of 
civil disputes was placed in the hands of the officers 
of militia, who met for that purpose every Tuesday ; 
and from their tribunal an appeal to the Governor 
was also allowed. 

Criminal cases were submitted to a court of 
military officers, civil misdemeanours being defined 
in the police regulations. To secure the city as far 
as possible from her ancient scourge of fire, and to 
lessen the chances of incendiarism, it was ordered 
that chimneys were to be swept at least once a month 
under penalty of six livres. The fire-brigade of the 
capital consisted, ex officio, of all the carpenters, who 
were required to attend with axes, the citizens being 
compelled to assemble with buckets. The habitants, 
while forbidden to harbour English deserters, received 
due recompense for any of the garrison billeted upon 
them. For the better regulation of prices, they were 
forbidden to sell their produce to strangers — " coureurs 
de cote" — but were required to bring it to market. 
Through representations made by the English Govern- 
ment, France at length consented to redeem the billets 
d' ordonnance with which her moribund administration 
had hopelessly flooded the country. The hand of the 



328 OLD QUEBEC chap, xvi 

new government was light, the civic burden easy. 
The days of the corvee were now passed, and harsh 
impressment no longer compelled the habitant to fight 
on short rations and without pay. Very soon the 
French Canadian, as he felt the improvement in his 
condition, ceased to feel resentment against his Eng- 
lish conqueror. 

That the military rule succeeding to the conquest 
of the country was benevolent, that its quality of 
mercy was not strained, is shown by the citizens 
of Montreal, who at the death of George II. 
" placed themselves in mourning," and presented the 
following robust address to the Governor: — 

" To His Excellency General Gage the Governor 
of Montreal and its dependencies, 

" The address of the Officers of Militia and 
Merchants of the City of Montreal. 

" Cruel Destiny has thus Cutt short the Glorious 
Days of so Great & so Magnanimous a Monarch ! 
We are come to pour out our Grief into the paternal 
Bosom of Your Excellency, the sole Tribute of 
Gratitude of a People who never Cease to Exhalt 
the mildness and Moderation of their New Masters. 
The General who has conquered Us has rather 
treated Us as a Father than a Vanquisher, & has 
left us a precious Pledge {gage) by Name & Deed 
of his Goodness to Us ; What acknowledgments are 
we not beholden to make for so many Favours ? 



cH.xvi FIRST YEARS OF BRITISH RULE 331 

They shall be for ever Engraven in our Hearts 
in Indelible Character. We Entreat Your Excellency 
to continue Us the Honour of Your Protection. 
We will endeavour to Deserve it by our Zeal 
& by the Earnest Prayers We shall ever offer 
up to the Immortal Being for Your Health and 
Preservation." 

On the other hand, there were those whose 
temperaments were opposed to acceptance of the 
new order of things — those to whom conquest by 
the hereditary enemy was intolerable. These- irrec- 
oncilable spirits were mainly civil and military 
officers, seigneurial families, and emigres of the first 
generation. To them estates in the New World 
meant much, but the motherland and the Bourbon 
lilies meant yet more; and as for the more recent 
arrivals, not having yet struck deep root in the land 
of their adoption, they were content to return to 
France. Accordingly, many of these availed them- 
selves of the transportation provided for in the 
terms of capitulation, and their departure robbed 
Canada of much of her best blood. The new 
government was hard pressed to find ships to accom- 
modate these distinguished passengers, as well as the 
two thousand disarmed soldiers of De Levis. At last, 
however, they were all embarked, and the crowded 
vessels set sail, only to be attacked by furious gales. 
De Levis narrowly escaped a watery grave off the 



332 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

rocks of Newfoundland, while the ship carrying 
Vaudreuil and his suite fared little better. 

But the most distressing disaster of all befell the 
Auguste, a frigate bearing the French officer La Corne, 
his family, his friends, and a large number of soldiers. 
Scarcely had the ill-fated ship passed the island of 
Anticosti when a dreadful storm overtook her from 
the west and drove her into the Gulf. A few days 
later, a fire broke out in the cook's galley, which was 
extinguished only by the most desperate energy of 
passengers and crew, and not before most of the 
provisions had been destroyed. Off Isle Royale 
another storm arose, in which they helplessly tossed 
for several days, being finally driven upon the coast. 
The Auguste went to pieces on the reefs. La Corne 
and six companions gained the shore, and unable to 
render assistance, saw their families drown in the 
surf. De Gaspe, in his work Les Anciens Canadiens, 
recounts the tragic story in the words of La Corne 
himself. 

"From the 13th to the 15th [of November] 
we were driven at the mercy of a violent storm, 
without knowing where we were. We were obliged 
as best we could to replace the crew, for the men, 
worn out with fatigue, had taken refuge in their 
hammocks and would not leave them ; threats, 
promises, even blows, had been tried in vain. Our 
mizzen-mast being broken, our sails torn to shreds. 



XVI FIRST YEARS OF BRITISH RULE 333 

and incapable of being clewed up or lowered, the 
first mate proposed as a last resource in this 
extremity to run into shore. It was a desperate 
act. The fatal moment arrived ! The captain and 
mate looked sadly at me with clasped hands. I but 
too well understood this mute language of men who 
from their profession were accustomed to brave 
death. We made the land to starboard, where we 
perceived the mouth of a river, which might prove 
to be navigable. Without concealing anything, I 
informed the passengers of both sexes of this 
manoeuvre, which was for life or death. . . . Who 
could describe the fury of the waves ! The storm 
had burst upon us in all its violence ; our masts 
seemed to reach up to the clouds, and then to plunge 
into the abyss. A terrible shock told us that the 
ship had touched the bottom. We then cut away 
the cordage and masts to lighten her and try to float 
her again ; this came to pass, but the force of the 
waves turned her over on her side. . . . As the ship 
was already leaking in every part, the passengers all 
rushed on deck ; and some . . . threw themselves 
into the sea and perished. . . . The passengers and 
crew had lashed themselves to the shrouds and spars 
in order to resist the waves which, breaking over the 
ship, were snatching fresh victims every moment. . . . 
Our only remaining resource was the two boats, the 
larger of which was carried away by a wave and 



334 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

dashed to pieces. The other was lowered into the 
water. ... I hastily seized a rope, and by means 
of a tremendous leap fell into the boat ; the same 
wave which saved my life carried away my two 
children. ... It would be difficult to describe the 
horror of this terrible disaster, the cries of those still 
on board the ship, and the harrowing spectacle of 
those who, having thrown themselves into the waves, 
were making useless efforts to gain the beach. . . . 
Seven living men at last found themselves on the 
shore of that unknown land . . . and (in the 
evening) it was a heartrending sight which presented 
itself when a hundred and fourteen corpses were 
stretched on the sand, many of them with arms and 
legs broken, or bearing other marks of the fury of 
the elements." 

For weeks the fugitives wandered about the 
woods, and at last were rescued by a party of Indians 
thirty leagues from Louisbourg. The indefatigible 
La Gorne crossed in a birch-bark canoe from Cape 
Breton to the mainland, and, travelling five hundred 
and fifty leagues on snow-shoes, came again to 
Quebec. Here, in spite of his own dire predictions, 
he found a gaiety and contentment which fairly 
startled him. Within the walls of the grim old river- 
fortress the ancient foes were making peace in the re- 
construction of industry. The wise forbearance of the 
conquerors, and the facile temper of the conquered. 



XVI FIRST YEARS OF BRITISH RULE 335 

provided, far beyond hope, a solution for what 
was, prima facie, a difficult situation. "It is very 
surprising," writes an officer of the Highlanders, 
" with what ease the gaiety of their tempers enables 
them to bear misfortunes which to us would be 
insupportable. Families, whom the calamities of 
war have reduced from the height of luxury to the 
want of common necessaries, laugh, dance, and sing, 
comforting themselves with this reflection — Fortune 
de guerre. Their young ladies take the utmost 
pains to teach our officers French ; with what views 
I know not, if it is not that they may hear them- 
selves praised, flattered, and courted without loss of 
time." Those who remained behind, sacrificing 
allegiance to their old flag for the sake of alle- 
giance to the soil, were indeed far happier than the 
irreconcilables who had elected to return to the 
motherland, bereft of all but their movable property. 
And among these homing Frenchmen were some 
whose reception caused them a very reasonable 
anxiety. Vaudreuil, Bigot, Pean, Cadet, Varin, 
Penisseault, and several others who had held offices 
in Canada, were cast into the Bastille, charged with 
the corruptions which had sapped the life-blood of 
New France. For months they contemplated their 
misdeeds in the sombre silence of the dungeon, 
and the next year were brought forth for trial. 
Vaudreuil, for lack of evidence, was acquitted — 



236 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

properly acquitted, so far as can be known, his chief 
fault having been a fatal ill-judgment; but a just 
fate overtook Bigot, Cadet, and their knavish para- 
sites. The Intendant was banished from France 
for life, and all his property confiscated ; Cadet was 
banished for nine years and fined six million livres ; 
the others received sentences in keeping with the 
measure of their guilt. 

Meanwhile, in Quebec, a decade of English 
rule slipped uneventfully by, marked chiefly by 
new perceptions of citizenship on the part of the 
French. The ancien regime had been conducted on 
the principle of centralised authority, allowing no 
place to personal liberty. Neither on its civil nor 
its military side were any rights extended to the 
individual. Up to the Conquest, the citizens of 
Quebec had been no more than cogs in the wheel 
of State, driven fast or slow according to the 
spasmodic interest felt by the Home government in 
her always troublesome colony — a land which had 
first claimed consideration as the gateway to Cathay, 
and presently appeared to be nothing better than a 
"thousand leagues of snow and ice." This decline 
from the equator of enthusiasm to the north pole 
of neglect indicated the unstable fortunes of the 
colony. National spirit was left to fill up the ranks 
of her army when danger threatened the frontiers ; 



XVI FIRST YEARS OF BRITISH RULE 337 

and to the simple habitant^ who had no interest to 
keep alive the memory of France, Quebec and Louis- 
bourg were the ends of the earth, and the annals of 
his parish the Alpha and Omega of knowledge. 

With British rule all this was changed. In Quebec 
the Tiers Rtat awoke to its latent destiny thirty years 
before the same realisation came to Paris ; and it was 
the new principles of government which achieved 
this bloodless revolution. The rights of man were 
no longer confined to the Governor, Intendant, 
and the Sovereign Council ; and the plainest citizen 
felt a new pulse within him as soon as he saw the 
trend of the English system. Instead of being kept 
in the dark as to what was taking place in the outside 
world, he found a strange solicitude in high quarters 
to keep him informed on every subject of public 
importance. Under General Murray a newspaper 
was established, the ^ebec GazettCy which began as a 
weekly in 1764.^ The first issue of this pioneer of 
Canadian journalism consisted of four folio pages, 
two columns to a page, one French, one English ; and 
the outline of its policy is given in the Printer s 
Address to the Public^ promising : — 

" A view of foreign affairs and political transac- 
tions from which a judgment may be formed of the 
interests and connections of the several powers of 

^It was changed into a bi-weekly in 1818, and in 1874 was merged into the 
Chronicle as a daily paper. 



338 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

Europe ; to collect the transactions and occurrences 
of our mother-country ; and to introduce every 
remarkable event, uncommon debates, extraordinary 
performances, and interesting turn of affairs that 
shall be thought to merit the notice of the reader as 
matter of entertainment, or that can be of service to 
the public as inhabitants of an Engish colony. . . . 
And here we beg leave to observe that we shall have 
nothing so much at heart as the support of virtue and 
morality and the noble cause of liberty. The refined 
amusements of literature and the pleasing veins of 
well-pointed wit shall also be considered as necessary 
to the collection — interspersed with other chosen 
pieces and curious essays extracted from the most 
celebrated authors — so that, blending philosophy 
with politics, history, etc., the youth of both sexes 
will be improved, and persons of all ranks agreeably 
and usefully entertained." ^ With such a high con- 
ception of its functions, the ^elfec Gazette launched 
itself twenty-four years in advance of the London 
Times, and fourteen years before Benjamin Franklin 
founded the Montreal Gazette. 

Since the Conquest, Quebec had been governed 
under the terms of a royal proclamation which, 
remarkable to relate, prescribed no definite forms of 
administration ; and by the articles of capitulation 
almost everything was left to the discretion of the 

1 Article by John S. Reade in the Centenary number, ^eba- Ga-zettc, 1864. 



XVI FIRST YEARS OF BRITISH RULE 339 

Governor. General Murray proved himself a discreet 
ruler; but friction of some sort was almost inevitable 
in a situation presenting such conflicting interests and 
delicate problems ; and it now came from those few 
hundred British settlers who wrongly supposed that 
their nationality gave them privileges over ten times 
their number of French fellow-subjects. Governor 
Murray, fortunately, held no partisan views ; and 
his policy was followed with equal firmness and 
greater success bv Sir Guy Carleton, who next 
assumed the administration in 1766. 

The new Governor had, indeed, a remarkable 
connection with the history of Quebec. In 1759 he 
had accompanied his friend James Wolfe to the 
siege of the city, and like his General, was wounded 
on the Plains of Abraham. He remained with 
Murray in Quebec during the trying winter of 1760, 
and fought in the battle of Ste. Foye. And now, 
after a brilliant campaign in the West Indies, the 
gallant soldier was returning to the fortress on the 
St. Lawrence at another critical moment in its history. 

Events were rapidly moving to a crisis in the 
English colonies to the south. In spite of Burke 
and Pitt, England was blindly imperilling her posses- 
sions in America by the imposition of the Stamp Act, 
and a failure to realise that the Thirteen Colonies 
had long outgrown a state of tutelage, and were not 
prepared to accept legislation from the motherland. 



340 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

But as a preliminary measure of offence, the newly 
assembled congress determined to detach Canada from 
the British crown, and, naturally, they counted most 
of all upon disaffection among the French Canadian 
population. It is not possible to give in full the 
letter which George Washington despatched on this 
occasion to "The Inhabitants of Canada " ; but the 
following is part of it : — 

" Friends and Brethren — The unnatural contest be- 
tween the English colonies and Great Britain has now risen 
to such a height that arms alone must decide it. The 
colonies, confiding in the justice of their cause, and the 
purity of their intention, have reluctantly appealed to that 
Being in whose hands are all human events. . . . Above 
all, we rejoice that our enemies have been deceived with 
regard to you. They have persuaded themselves, they have 
even dared to say, that the Canadians were not capable of 
distinguishing between the blessings of liberty and the 
wretchedness of slavery ; . . . but they have been deceived ; 
instead of finding in you a poverty of soul and baseness of 
spirit, they see with a chagrin, equal to our joy, that you 
are enlightened, generous, and virtuous ; that you will not 
renounce your own rights, or serve as instruments to deprive 
your fellow-subjects of theirs. Come then, my brethren, 
unite with us in an indissoluble union, let us run together 
to the same goal. . . . Come then, ye generous citizens, 
range yourselves under the standard of general liberty, against 
which all the force and artifices of tyranny will never be able 
to prevail. George Washington." 

The blandishments of the Thirteen Colonies, or 



XVI FIRST YEARS OF BRITISH RULE 341 

" The Provincials," as they were called, found almost 
no response in Canada. Sir Guy Carleton had left 
nothing undone to foster loyalty in the hearts of the 
French Canadians ; and the passing of the Quebec 
Act in 1774, which secured to them freedom of 
worship and confirmed their own system of juris- 
prudence, held the French fast to their allegiance 
at a time when disaffection would have been ruinous 
to the Empire. 

Controversies still rage over the propriety of 
legalising the French language in a British dominion ; 
but any one who examines well the circumstances 
which induced it must see that not only justice 
but military expediency required liberal treatment 
and wide consideration for seventy thousand sub- 
jects speaking an alien tongue, if the fruits of the 
Seven Years' War were not to be heedlessly thrown 
away. The solution of the language problem lies 
in the peaceful assimilation which time and growing 
population alone can bring. Almost a thousand 
years ago a Norman race was grafted upon a Saxon 
stock, and the blending of these elements has pro- 
duced Great Britain, the strongest nation of the 
modern world. In Canada religious, industrial, and 
social conditions have as yet prevented definite fusion 
of the two races ; but the march of events and the 
pressure of common interests must secure it in good 
time. 



CHAPTER XVII 



THE FIFTH SIEGE 



Besides Sir Guy Carleton, Wolfe's army of 1759 
contained other officers who were destined to re- 
appear in the history of the city. One of these was 
Richard Montgomery, then a lieutenant in the Seven- 
teenth Foot, but now, after a lapse of sixteen years, a 
brigadier-general, and charged with a far different 
commission. Moses Hazen and Donald Campbell, 
two officers who figured prominently in the battle of 
Ste. Foye, were likewise returning in different guise 
to the scene of their former exploits ; and Benedict 
Arnold, no stranger in Quebec, came there once more. 
All of these had made merry at Freemasons' Hall, 
the festive hostelry at the top of Mountain Hill, 
which had been a jovial rendezvous in the days of 
military rule. Here they had toasted and sung, little 
dreaming that one day they would assail that fort 
they had so dearly won, and face in battle their 
former messmates. Yet fate had so ordained ; and 
when the thirteen revolting colonies determined to 

34a 




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f^uv Lrai/J. 

U cf^it.fru>t^ lfm.era/ ff^ Cannula 76V J- 76'// . 



CHAP. XVII THE FIFTH SIEGE 



343 



strike the mother-country by an attack on Canada, 
it was to Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold 
that Congress gave the command of the two in- 
vading armies. The former was despatched against 
Montreal, the latter was sent to take Quebec. 

Down the Richelieu came Montgomery, and the 
forts of Ticonderoga, Crown Point, St. John, and 
Chambly fell before him. Sir Guy Carleton hurried 
to Montreal, but as he was unable to rally the citizens 
to their own defence, the town soon fell into the 
hands of the impetuous invader. General Carleton 
escaped in the guise of a peasant through the pro- 
vincial Hnes, and paddled to Quebec in a canoe. 
There his first step was to purge of treason the city 
upon which the hope of all Canada now rested. 
Citizens suspected of disaffection were banished be- 
yond the walls; and though the garrison numbered 
only eighteen hundred men, French and English, 
the loyalty of all was secure, begetting confidence in 
their power to meet the attack. A contemporary 
diary, that of James Thompson, refers thus to the 
defences : " I received order from General Carleton 
to put the extensive fortifications of Quebec in a 
state of repair at a time when there was not a single 
article of material in store with which to perform 
such an undertaking. . . . My first object was to 
secure stout spar timber for palisading a great extent 
of open ground between the gates called Palace and 



344 OLD QUEBEC chap, xvii 

Hope, and again from half-bastion of Cape Diamond 
along the brow of the cliff towards Castle St. Lewis. 
I began at Palace Gate, palisading with loopholes 
for musketry, and made a projection in the form of 
a bastion, as a defence for a line of pickets, in the 
gorge of which I erected a blockhouse, which made a 
good defence. . . . Also a blockhouse on the Cape 
under Cape Diamond bastion. ... I also had a 
party of the carpenters barricading the extremities of 
the Lower Town by blockading up all the windows 
of the houses next to the riverside and those facing 
the water, leaving only loopholes for musketry, as a 
defence in case the St. Lawrence should freeze 
across. ... At this time, the nights being dark, I 
strongly recommended the use of lanterns extended 
on poles from the salient angles of all the bastions. 
By means of these lights even a dog could be dis- 
tinguished if in the great ditch in the darkest night. 
This we continued in the absence of the moon, with 
the exception of a composition burned in iron pots, 
substituted for candles." 

It was November, and up to this time General 
Carleton had feared only the arrival of Montgomery's 
army from Montreal. Suddenly, however, a new 
enemy appeared at Point Levi. Benedict Arnold, 
at the head of seven hundred men, had accom- 
plished an amazing journey. Through the tangled 
forests of New Hampshire and Maine, beset by 



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GENERAL RICHARD MONTGOMERY 

(Fell at Quebec 1775) 



CHAP. XVII THE FIFTH SIEGE 347 

the driving storms of an early winter, this intrepid 
army toiled overland from Boston to Point Levi. 
On the night of the 14th of November, Arnold's 
force crossed the river, and gained the Plains 
of Abraham without opposition. Three weeks later 
Montgomery's army arrived from Montreal, and the 
united forces established themselves at Ste. Foye. 
Both Montgomery and Arnold had counted upon 
the co-operation of the French Canadians ; and 
owing to the success of the army against Montreal, 
some of the fickle habitants were persuaded to join 
the invaders. In general, however, the French 
population were not forgetful of the just treatment 
they had met at the hands of the British, and if they 
were not to be depended upon for a powerful de- 
fence, they at least rendered no assistance to the 
besiegers. About half of those whom Carleton had 
kept within the walls were French, but these, as has 
been said, were wholly trustworthy. 

The Governor paid no heed to Montgomery's call 
to surrender. His envoys were turned away from 
the gates, and the resolute equanimity of the town 
disturbed him. That his temper hardly stood the 
strain is evident from the following letter to the 
Governor : — 

" Sir — Notwithstanding the personal ill-treatment 
I have received at your hands, and notwithstanding 



348 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

vour cruelty to the unhappy prisoners you have taken, 
the feehngs of humanity induce me to have recourse 
to this expedient to save you from the destruction 
which hangs over you. Give me leave, sir, to assure 
you, I am well acquainted with your situation. A 
great extent of works, in their nature incapable of 
defence, manned with a motley crew of sailors, the 
greatest part our friends, of citizens who wish to see 
us within their walls, and a few of the worst troops 
who ever styled themselves soldiers. The impossi- 
bility of relief, and the certain prospect of wanting 
every necessary of life, should your opponents con- 
fine their operations to a simple blockade, point out 
the absurdity of resistance. ... I am at the head 
of troops accustomed to success . . . and so highly 
incensed at your inhumanity, illiberal abuse, and the 
ungenerous means employed to prejudice them in 
the minds of the Canadians, that it is with difficulty 
I restrain them till my batteries are ready. . . . Be- 
ware of destroying stores of any kind, public or 
private. . . . If you do, by Heavens, there will be 
no mercy shown ! 

" Richard Montgomery, 
" Continental Army, G.C." 

If there was one man who knew the impractica- 
bility of a " simple blockade," it was the General in 
command of the Continental army. No one stood 



XVII THE FIFTH SIEGE 349 

in greater need of " stores of any kind, public or 
private." The spirit of his army was doubtless as he 
described it ; but he had wholly mistaken the temper 
of the garrison. 

Kirke, Phipps, Wolfe, and Levis had all left their 
mark upon Quebec, and now the battered walls were 
once more threatened by Montgomery. The Pro- 
vincial army had taken posession of every point of 
vantage outside the gates, the General having estab- 
lished his headquarters at Holland House, by the Ste. 
Foye road, while Arnold occupied the suburb of St. 
Roch towards Charles River. The houses of the 
habitants, the General Hospital, and the Intendant's 
Palace were thronged with soldiers, who found their 
tents poor protection against the rigours of a winter 
campaign. A six-gun battery was erected within 
three hundred paces of St. John's Gate, a battery of 
two guns thundered from the bank of the St. Charles, 
while a third belched impotent fire across the river 
from Point Levi. From the cupola of the Intendant's 
Palace a bodv of riflemen continued to pick man 
after man off the ramparts, until Sir Guy Carleton 
at last trained his guns upon it. It was a hard thing 
for the Governor to destroy perhaps the finest build- 
ing of all Quebec, but the rigours of the siege seemed 
to leave him no alternative ; and soon the venerable 
building lay in ruins, having witnessed the chequered 
history of the city since the days of the great Talon. 



350 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

Day and night the cannon on the ramparts 
answered the enemy's howitzers, and once again the 
river gorge echoed back the roar of artillery. Shells 
and grenades burst continually in the streets, and as 
weeks wore away the citizens became inured to the 
dangers of battle or sudden death by roundshot, 
grape, and canister. Outside the walls, the enemy 
suffered in like manner, running the gauntlet of 
Carleton's artillery and exposed to the musketry of 
the garrison. One day as Montgomery dashed over 
the snow-covered plain in a carriole his horse was 
killed by a cannon shot. Such casual dangers, 
however, were the least cause of his anxiety, which 
was especially due to the prolongation of the siege. 
His men were ill-clothed, depending for rations 
largely upon the goodwill of the habitants^ who 
anxiously weighed the chances of British prowess. 
Moreover, desertion and sickness thinned his ranks ; 
and at last, having resolved upon a coup de main^ 
he formed his plans and awaited a dark night for 
their execution. 

Meantime, the wary Carleton neglected no means 
of informing himself of the enemy's intentions. 
When this latest resolution of the invader came to 
his ears, the night watches of Quebec were doubled, 
and he and his devoted officers slept in their clothes 
at the Recollet Convent, whence, at a moment's 
notice, they could hasten to a, threatened quarter. 



xvir THE FIFTH SIEGE 351 

On the 30th of December a deserter from Mont- 
gomery's camp, being allowed within the gates, 
confirmed Carleton's suspicions by affirming that 
the Continental army had received final instructions, 
with permission to plunder the city on its capture. 
Once more the Governor inspected the fortifications 
and the barriers of the Lower Town, and anxiously 
awaited the assault. 

Having accurate knowledge of the city's de- 
fences, Montgomery saw but one plan promising 
success to his enterprise. This was to divide his 
force and attack the Lower Town from two 
directions. From St. Roch Arnold was to 
force the barrier below the Sault-au-Matelot, while 
he himself should creep along through Pres-de- 
Ville, at the base of Cape Diamond, carry the 
barrier and blockhouse standing in his way, and 
reach the foot of Mountain Hill. Uniting at 
this point, the two columns would gain the Upper 
Town and overpower the garrison, the real assault 
being conducted under cover of a simulated attack 
upon the ramparts from the Plains. The plan was 
desperate, but at least not more hopeless for the ill- 
conditioned troops of the invaders than a long and 
cruel siege. 

It was the last night of the year 1775, the stars 
were winter bright, but the fleecy clouds of im- 
pending storm were driven across the sky. Silently 



i,S^ OLD QUEBEC chap. 

the guards paced the ramparts of the watchful 
city, gazing eagerly over the glimmering Plains 
of Abraham, and across the river where the 
lights of the Levi outposts twinkled against the 
dark sky. Midnight passed, the stars were 
obscured, and snowflakes began to fall, at first 
slowly, then swiftly blown upon the rising wind. 
Presently, as the clock in the guard-house struck 
four, two rockets shot up from the enemy's camp 
and burst in a fiery shower beyond the Cape. 
Captain Malcolm Eraser of the Highlanders stopped 
short in his round of inspection : " Guard, turn 
out ! " he shouted. Having raised the guard, he 
rushed down St. Louis Street sounding the alarm, 
and at the Recollet Convent found General Carleton 
and his staff. In five minutes every bell within 
the walls was ringing, drummers were beating the 
assembly, and every soldier of the fort was at his 
post. 

Meanwhile, the two forces of the Continental 
army were marching to the attack. Arnold's 
division, having the shorter distance to traverse, 
reached its objective first. " When we came to 
Craig's house, near Palace Gate," writes a participant,^ 
"a horrible roar of cannon took place, and a ringing 
of the bells of the city, which are very numerous 
and of all sizes. Arnold, leading the forlorn hope, 

1 Siege of ^ebec, 1775, 1776, hy John Joseph Henry. 



XVII 



THE FIFTH SIEGE 3S3 

advanced perhaps one hundred yards before the main 
body. . . . The snow was deeper than in the fields, 
because of the nature of the ground ; and the path 
made (by the advance guard) was almost imper- 
ceptible because of the falling snow. Covering the 
locks of our guns with the lappets of our coats, 
holding down our heads (for it was impossible to 
bear up our faces against the imperious storm of 
wind and snow), we ran along the foot of the hill 
in single file. ... In these intervals we received a 
tremendous fire of musketry from the ramparts 
above us. Here we lost some brave men, when 
powerless to return the salutes we received, for the 
enemy was covered by his impregnable defences. . . . 
They were even sightless to us ; we could see 
nothing but the blaze from the muzzles of the 
muskets. . . . We proceeded rapidly, exposed to 
the long line of fire from the garrison, for now we 
were unprotected by any buildings. The fire had 
slackened in a small degree. The enemy had been 
partly called off to resist the General (Montgomery), 
and strengthen the party opposed to Arnold in our 
front. Now we saw Colonel Arnold returning, 
wounded in the leg and supported by two gentle- 
men. . . . (He) called on the troops in a cheering 
voice as we passed, urging us forward, yet it was 
observable among the soldiery, with whom it was my 
misfortune to be now placed, that the Colonel's 



354 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

retiringdamped their spirits. . . . Thus proceeding, 
enfiladed by an animated but lessened fire, we came 
to the first barrier, where Arnold had been wounded 
at the onset. This contest had lasted but a few 
minutes, and had been somewhat severe, but the 
energy of our men prevailed. The embrasures were 
entered when the enemy were discharging their guns. 
The guard, consisting of thirty persons, were either 
taken or fled, leaving their arms behind them. . . . 
From the first barrier to the second there was a 
circular course along the sides of the houses and 
partly through the streets. . . . This second barrier 
was erected across and near the mouth of a narrow 
street adjacent to the foot of a hill which opened 
into a larger, leading soon into the main body of the 
Lower Town. Here it was that the most serious 
contention took place. . . . Confined in a narrow 
street, hardly more than twenty feet wide, and on 
lower ground, scarcely a ball, well aimed or other- 
wise, but must take effect upon us. ... A crowd 
of every class of the army had gathered into the 
narrow pass, attempting to surmount the barrier, 
which was about twelve feet or more high, and so 
strongly constructed that nothing but artillery could 
effectuate its destruction. . . . Within the barrier, 
and close into it, were two ranges of musketeers, 
armed with musket and bayonet, ready to receive 
those who might venture the dangerous leap. . . . 



XVII ■ THE FIFTH SIEGE ssS 

This was near daylight, . . . and all hope of 
success having vanished, a retreat was contemplated. 
. . , The moment (however) was foolishly lost 
when such a movement might have been made with 
tolerable success . . . and Captain Laws, at the 
head of two hundred men, issuing from Palace Gate, 
most fairly and handsomely cooped us up. Many 
of the men, aware of the consequences, and all our 
Indians and Canadians, escaped across the ice which 
covered the Bay of St. Charles. . . . This was a 
dangerous and desperate adventure, but worth while 
the undertaking, in avoidance of our subsequent 
sufferings. Its desperateness consisted in running 
two miles across shoal ice, thrown up by the high 
tides of this latitude ; and its danger, in the meeting 
with air-holes, deceptively covered by the bed of 
snow. . . ." 

With the other wing of the invading army, the 
issue was even less doubtful and far more tragic. 
Montgomery had pushed through the storm, along 
the base of the cliffs from Wolfe's Cove to the base 
of Cape Diamond. Deep snow covered the rocky 
pathway, and spray from the fretting river had 
rendered it slippery with ice. Every man in the 
chosen company knew the peril of the enterprise, 
and moved forward stealthily. Soon the advance 
guard led by Montgomery in person could discern 
through the driving snow the first straggling houses 



35^ OLD QUEBEC chap, xvii 

of the Lower Town. A barrier crossed the roadway, 
but no sight or sound gave evidence that the guard 
was on the alert. Forward they crept, silent and 
full of desperate purpose. Suddenly, when they 
were within thirty yards of the barrier and counting 
fully upon the surprise of the outpost, four cannon 
and a score of muskets pounded forth a deadly fire. 
Itself taken by surprise, the Continental army broke 
and fled. No sound reached the wakeful guard save 
the groans of the wounded who had gone down 
before that fatal barrier; but, distrustful even of the 
silence, their battery continued to sweep the pass. 

At dawn a reconnoitring party ventured forth 
from the guard-house. Thirteen bodies lay half 
buried in the snow, and the only remains of the invad- 
ing army were General Montgomery, his two aides- 
de-camp, Cheeseman and M'Pherson, a sergeant, and 
eight men. All but the sergeant were dead, and he 
too died within an hour. As for the General, only an 
arm appeared above the snow, and a drummer-boy 
picked up his sword close by. The English soldiers, 
uncertain whose body it was, fetched a prisoner, one 
of Arnold's forlorn hope, who could not restrain his 
grief for the brave General who had been the idol of 
his troops. Widow Prentice, of Freemasons' Hall, 
also recognised Montgomery by the sabre-cut upon 
his cheek ; and Sir Guy Carleton having no 
further doubt as to his identity, gave orders that 




CAPE DIAMOND 

(Pres-de-Ville, where Montgomery fell) 



CHAP. XVII THE FIFTH SIEGE 359 

the slain General should have honourable burial. 
Up Mountain Hill they bore him to the small house 
in St. Louis Street, still known as Montgomery 
House, and later in the same day he was laid in a 
coffin draped with black, and borne by soldiers to 
a new-made grave in the gorge of the St. Louis 
bastion. A brass tablet now marks the spot near 
the present St. Louis Gate. 

Although both divisions of their army were 
defeated, over four hundred prisoners taken, and 
their General slain, the invaders were yet unwilling 
to give up the struggle against the grim walls of 
Quebec. They were sore beset by cold, hunger, 
and the hardships of active warfare ; and small-pox 
carried off nearly five hundred of their number. 
On the death of Montgomery, Arnold had succeeded 
to the chief command, but it was April before his 
wound was healed. Meanwhile, they had quickly 
erected a new battery at Point Levi, and once again 
the guns of the citadel entered upon an artillery 
duel with that historic ravelin. From time to time 
rockets sent up from the enemy's camp threw the 
defenders of the city into unusual alarm, and once or 
twice, when the signals seemed more pregnant, the 
whole force turned out and swiftly took up their 
assigned positions. General Carleton on the other 
side, not having enough soldiers to dislodge the 
besiegers, had been content to hold fast and wait 



360 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

until spring should bring him reinforcements from 
England. No vigilance on the part of the garrison 
was relaxed, and throughout the cold and dreary 
winter the sentries marched night and day upon the 
ramparts. 

Towards late spring the increased activity of the 
besiegers caused a corresponding restiveness among 
the many prisoners within the city. Sir Guy 
Carleton had treated them with as much liberality 
as was possible under the circumstances ; but on an 
attempt on the part of some of the officers to bribe 
the guard, he speedily placed the offenders in irons. 
On the last day of March a large number of 
prisoners made an attempt to escape from the 
Dauphin barracks, just inside St. John's Gate. 
Their plan was to overpower the guard, whose 
strength was necessarily small, capture the adjacent 
city gate, and hold it open for their comrades on the 
Plains. The plot was discovered, however, and the 
prisoners were transferred to the British gun-boats 
in the harbour. 

As the weeks went by, the anxiety of an ever 
threatened attack told heavily on the garrison, and 
even the convalescent were called upon for guard- 
house duty. A blockade extending over four or five 
months was exhausting their provisions ; and for fuel 
they were at length reduced to tearing down wooden 
houses in the suburb of St. Roch. For half a year 



XVII THE FIFTH SIEGE 361 

the Richelieu, Montreal, and Three Rivers, in fact the 
whole of Canada, had been virtually in the enemy's 
hands ; Quebec alone remained, but, commanded by 
Carleton, Quebec was a fortress in the most real 
sense. 

It was the evening of the 3rd of May, and in the 
gathering darkness a ship rounded Point Levi and 
drew near to the ships in the basin. Cheers rose 
from the garrison and a saluting gun boomed from 
the citadel. Still the strange craft made no salute, 
and a heavy crash of artillery burst from the Grand 
Battery. For answer, flames leaped up the rigging 
and along the bulwarks of the approaching schooner. 
It was the Gaspe^ which the enemy had fitted up as a 
fire-ship and sent into the harbour. The crew, being 
disconcerted by the alert challenge of the garrison, 
hastily lighted the fuses and escaped in small boats, 
but only to see the impotent fire-ship carried down 
the river by the ebbing tide. 

Meanwhile, the invading army had drawn near to 
the ramparts, intending to assault the town under the 
confusion caused by the Gaspe. To these dogged 
troops, steeled for their last great effort, the failure of 
the fire-ship was a severe blow. Moreover, their 
slight remaining hope vanished a day or two 
later when the British frigate Surprise, arrived 
in the harbour, having boldly forced its way 
through the ice-packs which still beset the lower 



362 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

river. Not long afterwards the hiSy fifty guns, 
and the sloop-of-war Martin also rounded Point 
Levi. 

After six months of toil, privation, and suspense 
the brave garrison was at last relieved. Once 
more in Quebec numberless joy-bells rang out, 
and artillery crashed triumphantly across the tide. 
Flags ran up on every bastion and parapet within 
the walls, and the cheers of the reinforced garrison 
carried dark despair to the enemy's camp across the 
Plains. 

The siege was immediately raised, the invaders 
thinking only of escape. General Carleton, with a 
force of only a thousand men, marched out by the 
city gates and tried to fall upon the enemy's flank. 
So rapid had been their flight, however, that only the 
van of his column was able to come up with the 
Provincials, who, in their hurried retreat, had not 
only abandoned their artillery, ammunition, and 
scaling-ladders, but had left their sick and wounded 
in the tents of Ste. Foye. Once more the invader 
had failed to seize the key of all Canada ; and 
another successful conflict was written in the annals 
of Quebec. Never again was a hostile army to beset 
those grim grey walls. " Twice conquered and 
thrice conquering " became the pregnant summary 
of two centuries of the history of the fortress, and 
the lapse of still another hundred years makes no 



XVII THE FIFTH SIEGE 363 

amendment necessary. Like her younger sister, 
New Orleans, the city upon the St. Lawrence 
had often been the battlefield of the nations, but, 
for both, the centuries have brought prosperity and 
peace. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PROGRESS 

Quebec had passed through her last ordeal of fire and 
sword, and for many years the 3 ist of December was 
celebrated with enthusiasm as the anniversary of the 
victory. But although the effort to detach the French 
Canadians from their allegiance to Great Britain re- 
sulted miserably in the defeat of Montgomery and 
Arnold, the Thirteen Colonies did not quite relinquish 
the hope of accomplishing their end. Instead of an 
army, Congress now despatched commissioners to 
Canada, Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Chase, and 
Charles Carroll of Carrollton being of the number. 
The mission, however, was without success ; for the 
ancient capital, although the most foreign in speech 
and custom of all places in British North America, 
remained steadfast under the temptation to swerve 
from her allegiance. Franklin, indeed, added nothing 
to his reputation by his general relations with the 
settlements on the St. Lawrence. For twenty-four 
years he had held the position of Deputy-Postmaster- 

364 



XVIII SOCIAL & POLITICAL PROGRESS 2^S 

General for the English colonies, Quebec being 
regarded as in some sense within his jurisdiction ; 
and the unsatisfactory monthly service between 
Quebec and Montreal as well as the absence of in- 
termediate post-offices, had made him unpopular 
along the Canadian river. It is not surprising, 




BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

(One of the four American Commissioners to Canada in 1776) 

therefore, that he failed to arouse the enthusiasm of 
the French, especially for a cause which their strong 
monarchical principles failed to approve. 

It is estimated that more than twenty-five 
thousand United Empire Loyalists crossed the 
border at the end of the American Revolutionary 
War to live under the British flag. These, for 
the most part, went to Upper Canada, the settle- 



366 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

ments along Lake Ontario and the Bay of Quinte, 
being centres of vigorous life and progress ; while 
not a few settled in Quebec, adding to the sound 
character of its sturdy population. 

A further accession, moreover, was made by the 
arrival of two regiments of Hessians and Bruns- 
wickers, who came out to garrison the citadel. Many 
of these presently obtained their discharge in order 
to marry and settle down in Quebec. The current 
directory discloses many names of German origin, 
names now high up in the roll of citizenship, but 
once in the books of the Hanoverian regiments of 
George III. 

A memorable figure passes across the stage of 
Quebec history just at this time. In 1782 the 
frigate Albemarle^ twenty-eight guns, lay in the 
harbour, and her brilliant, handsome commander 
was Horatio Nelson, This paragon of fortune had 
entered His Majesty's Navy as a child of twelve ; at 
fourteen he was captain's coxswain on the expedition 
of the Carcass to the North Pole ; and now, with an 
astonishing experience crowded into a life of twenty- 
four years, he dropped anchor before the rock of 
Quebec. 

The sober Haldimand was Governor, and the 
Sturm und Drang of the American Revolution had 
cast a cloud upon the social life of Canada. For if 
Quebec was not what it had been in the days of Sir 



XVIII SOCIAL & POLITICAL PROGRESS 367 

Guy and Lady Carleton, the sterner regime of Haldi- 
mand had deeper influences behind it than the 




CHARLES CARROLL OF CARROLLTON 

(One of the four American Commissioners to Canada in 1776) 

militarism of a rigid soldier. Nevertheless, Nelson 
and his gay company helped to lighten the 
heavy cloud, and for the space of a few weeks 
dinners and dances, on shore and on board the 



368 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

Albemarle, enlivened the autumn season in the 
capital. Southey's Life of Nelson contains rather a 
quaint picture of the commander of the Albemarle 
about this time. Prince William Henry, then known 
as the Duke of Clarence, regarded him as the merest 
boy of a captain he had ever seen. Dressed in a full- 
laced uniform, an old-fashioned waistcoat with long 
flaps, and his lank, unpowdered hair tied in a 
stiff Hessian tail of extraordinary length, he made 
altogether so remarkable a figure that, to use the 
Prince's own words, " I had never seen anything like 
it before, nor could I imagine who he was nor what 
he came about. But his address and conversation 
were irresistibly pleasing; and when he spoke on 
professional subjects, it was with an enthusiasm which 
showed he was no common being." 

Freemasons' Hall, at the top of Mountain Hill, 
was the fashionable rendezvous ashore, and not since 
the days of Murray's garrison had the old stone 
hostel been so merrily possessed. One Miss Mary 
Simpson appears to have been a belle of the period ; 
and Sir James Le Moine, the antiquary, has identified 
her as the lady whose charms might have changed 
the course of history. *' At Quebec," writes his 
biographer, " Nelson became acquainted with Alex- 
ander Davison, by whose interference he was pre- 
vented from making what would have been called 
an imprudent marriage. The Albemarle was about 




U oi't/rufr- l^^fiffi// p/ U/nt/Jti /S'/S'- /SV? . 



xvin SOCIAL & POLITICAL PROGRESS 369 

to leave the station, her captain had taken leave of 
his friends, and was gone down the river to the place 




SAMUEL CHASE 

(One of the four American Commissioners to Canada in 1776) 

of anchorage, when, the next morning, as Davison 
was walking on the beach, to his surprise he saw 
Nelson coming back in his boat. Upon inquiring 
the cause of his reappearance, Nelson took his arm 



370 OLD QUEBEC chap, xviii 

to walk towards the town, and told him he found it 
utterly impossible to leave Quebec without again 
seeing the woman whose society contributed so much 
to his happiness, and then and there offering her his 
hand. ' If you do,' said his friend, ' your utter ruin 
must inevitably follow.' ' Then let it follow,' cried 
Nelson; 'for I am resolved to do it.' 'And I,' 
replied Davison, ' am resolved you shall not.' 
Nelson, however, on this occasion was less resolved 
than his friend, and suffered himself to be led back 
to the boat." ^ 

It is not clear why Nelson's utter ruin should 
"inevitably follow" his marriage with Mary Simpson. 
Was it on account of his youth ? Or was the 
statement due to Davison's distrust of marriage in 
general ? If this was the reason, it is evident that 
Nelson was not greatly moved by his friend's 
pessimism ; for not much more than a year later we 
find him making an unsuccessful proposal of marriage 
to Miss Andrews, the daughter of an English clergy- 
man at St. Omer, France, a rebuff for which, in the 
following year, he found consolation in an alliance 
with Mrs. Nesbit. 

The settlement of the United Empire Loyalists 
in Canada greatly altered the political complexion of 
the conquered country. The terms of the Quebec 
Act of 1774, though necessary in the circumstances, 

1 Southey's Life of Nchon, chap. i. 




REAKNECK STEPS TO-DAY 



XVIII SOCIAL & POLITICAL PROGRESS 373 

were distinctly opposed to the views of the English 
minority, who strongly resented the employment 
of French civil law. And now these newcomers 
greatly increased the strength of this English faction, 
the peculiar conditions under which they chose to 
throw in their lot with Canada giving them a claim 
upon the Home government which could not be 
disregarded. The continuous agitation for parlia- 
mentary government which marked the years from 
1783 to 1790, was not confined to the English 
section of the population. With the English, how- 
ever, it took the special form of a demand for a 
separate province west of the river Beaudette, the 
capital of which should be Cataraqui,^ " with the 
blessings of British laws, and of British Government, 
and an exemption from French tenures," 

In the midst of this political turmoil. Sir Guy 
Carleton, who, for* his distinguished services, had 
been raised to the peerage with the title of Lord 
Dorchester, returned to Canada as Governor-General; 
and on the 23rd of October, 1786, Quebec welcomed 
her former deliverer at the landing-stage, the whole 
population, French and English, uniting to give him 
an honourable and joyous reception. Every one felt 
indeed that Dorchester was the man to solve the 
political difficulty of the period ; and with these 
omens of success he set to work forthwith, dividing 

1 Now the City of Kingston, Ontario. 



374 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

the province into four administrative districts on an 
English pattern, and preparing for the English 
government a careful report on the social, political, 
and judicial conditions of his province, to facilitate 
remedial legislation. 

In the spring of 1791 the younger Pitt introduced 
into the British House of Commons a Bill providing 
for the political needs of Canada. It proposed the 
division of the country into two provinces, the 
special character of each being preserved through 
the medium of an elective assembly. This naturally 
raised strenuous opposition among the English 
minority whom this division would still leave in the 
province of Lower Canada. It was all very well, 
they declared, for the English of Upper Canada to be 
accorded representative government, but for them- 
selves this measure would mean a further decrease 
of influence in Quebec, On behalf of the English 
section of the population, Adam Lymburner, an in- 
fluential merchant of the city, proceeded to England, 
and was heard at the bar of the House of Commons. 
The debate was keen and fierce. Pitt supported the 
Bill in its original form, contending that the terri- 
torial separation would put an end to the strife 
between the old French inhabitants and the new 
settlers from Britain and the New England colonies. 
Edmund Burke, whose speech related mainly to the 
French Revolution, was of opinion that " to attempt 



■>. 




7T}/f?Nrtf/ Cf'.rc/^fyf/^ //f/.fen 



xviii SOCIAL & POLITICAL PROGRESS 375 

to amalgamate two populations composed of races of 
men diverse in language, laws, and customs, was a 
complete absurdity." Fox, opposing the division of 
the province, accused Burke of irrelevancy in his 
address, and made a speech which provoked a 
memorable quarrel and brought to an end the friend- 
ship of the two greatest Parliamentary orators of the 
century. 

At last, however, the Bill became law under 
the title of the Constitutional Act ; and on the 
17th of December, 1792, the first legislature of 
Lower Canada assembled in the chapel of the 
Bishop's Palace, which had been fitted up as a 
council chamber. From the seventeenth century 
this hoary structure of stone had overlooked the 
Grand Battery from the top of Mountain Hill, 
commanding a view of the basin and the attenuated 
Cote de Beaupre, of which from the time of Laval it 
had been the seigneurial manor-house. In appro- 
priating the episcopal palace for legislative purposes, 
the Imperial governmient recompensed the Catholic 
see of Quebec by an annuity. The old French 
building was demolished in 1834, and the new 
House of Parliament, soon afterwards erected on 
the same site, served to indicate the wonderful 
political development of the French province as an 
integral part of the British Empire. 

The proclamation of the Constitutional Act, on 



376 OLD QUEBEC chap, xviii 

the 26th of December, 1791, was the signal for great 
pubHc rejoicings in Quebec. During the day the regi- 
mental bands played to the trooping of the colours 
on the Esplanade, and in the evening the streets 
were ablaze with lights and torches, while fountains 
of fireworks broke from, the high bastions of the 
citadel. A public dinner, attended by one hundred 
and sixty gentlemen, brought the fete to a close. 

An unusual feature of these celebrations was the 
presence of His Royal Highness Prince Edwaid, 
Duke of Kent, son of George III., who had come to 
Quebec in the preceding summer as colonel of the 
Seventh Fusiliers. The transfer of this gay regiment 
from the Gibraltar of the Old World to the Gibraltar 
of the New did more than merely decorate the social 
annals of Quebec ; for the visible presence of a prince 
of the blood contributed not a little to crystallise 
the loyalty of a French province not quite beyond 
the influence of the great revolutionary fires of 
Europe. Although he was but twenty-five, Prince 
Edward had the tact and s avoir fair e of riper years ; 
and during his three years' residence in the garrison, 
exerted a great and far-reaching influence on the 
fidelity of French Canada. The reception of the 
gallant Prince when he landed at the head of his 
regiment in August 1791 was marked by all that 
enthusiasm which the Gallic city had learned of 
old. Long since, in 1665, the Marquis de Tracy 



^mmmmmmmm^ 




XVIII SOCIAL & POLITICAL PROGRESS 379 

had schooled her in these august pageants, and now 
when Commodore Sawyer's squadron, consisting of 
the LeandeVy the Resource, the Ariadne, the Thisbe, 




HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE DUKE OF KENT, K.B. 

the Ulysses, and the Resistance, dropped anchor in 
the basin, Quebec was streaming with flags and 
bunting and resounding with music. Next day 



38o OLD QUEBEC chap, xviii 

his Royal Highness held a levee at Chateau St. 
Louis, where the civic authorities assembled to do 
him honour. 

Prince Edward established himself at Kent House, 
the sombre mansion in St. Louis Street, which Bigot 
had built for the fascinating Angelique des Meloises 
almost half a century before. Here he held his court; 
but his heart was in the country, and except upon 
public occasions, he preferred the stately retirement 
of Haldimand House, a rustic retreat still standing 
near the brink of Montmorency Falls. Gaily he 
made his promenade along the Beauport Road, or 
shot over the marshes of La Carnardiere ; and at his 
own or the neighbouring homestead of M, de 
Salaberry, the genial company whiled away many 
an evening with whist. Frequent balls and re- 
ceptions in the old Chateau recalled the days of 
Frontenac's merry court ; or, still further back, that 
night of Canada's first ball, the 4th of February, 
1667, when the courtly soldiers of the Carignan- 
Salieres regiment led the grand dames of New 
France through the mazes of a Versailles quadrille. 
From a child, indeed, Quebec had conned the 
worldly wisdom of Fontainebleau. Her whole- 
some reputation for the social graces is reflected 
in the compliment paid by George IIL to the 
first Canadian lady who had the honour to be 
presented at the Court of St. James's : " Madame, 



XVIII SOCIAL & POLITICAL PROGRESS 383 

if the ladies of Canada are at all like you, I have 
indeed made a conquest ! " 

It was among these gracious spirits that Prince 
Edward's lines were fallen ; and within the space of 
three years the large-hearted Duke had bound the 
hearts of French Canada more firmly to the throne 
upon which his own daughter was to sit as Queen 
Victoria. 

Meanwhile, in Europe, the feudalism which had 
lost Canada to France was in its mortal throes. The 
shock of the French Re volution was quivering through 
the hemisphere, and the convulsion was felt heavily in 
the New World. In the United States, Washing- 
ton was President, Hamilton was at the Treasury, 
and Jefferson was Secretary of State, with Madison as 
a colleague in the Cabinet. In the early stages of 
the Revolution the United States had given enthu- 
siastic sympathy to the movement ; but as it grew 
in violence, all but the mob and Jefferson and 
Madison were alienated. No degree of tyranny 
appeared to offend the sensibilities of these latter 
statesmen ; and when the French Convention 
declared war against England, their approval of 
that measure all but committed the United States 
to the principles of red republicanism. Genet, 
the French Ambassador to the United States, with 
an insolence that defeated itself, carried on un- 



384 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

blushing intrigues until his recall was requested. 
For a time, moreover, the populace cried out for 
war with England, and only the calm resolution of 
Washington averted such a catastrophe. John Jay 
was presently despatched to England to negotiate 
the " Treaty of Amity and Commerce," but it 
required all the weight of the sober-minded portion 
of the population to secure its final ratification. 

This, however, did not prevent M, Adet, the new 
French Ambassador to the United States, from send- 
ing an address to the French Canadians, informing 
them of the success of the arms of France against the 
allied powers of Europe, and calling upon them to 
rally round the standard of the Republic. The 
response to this appeal in the Province of Lower 
Canada was absurdly feeble. The greatest power in 
all Canada — the Church — shrank in horror from the 
blood-stained banner of regicide France ; and zeal- 
ous always for the monarchy, the Catholic hierarchy 
indignantly spurned the overtures of a republic 
whose most cherished principle was atheism — which 
had abandoned the worship of God for the cult 
of Reason. "For God and the King" had been 
the priestly motto from time immemorial, and 
the new Republic repudiated obligation not to one 
only but to both. Accordingly, the vast influence 
of the Church was exerted on the side of loyalty 
to Great Britain. 



XVIII SOCIAL & POLITICAL PROGRESS 385 

It must not be assumed, however, that the intrigues 
which the French RepubHc carried on by way of the 
United States, found no response whatever in Lower 
Canada ; for naturally enough there were some whose 
habitual discontent made them ready for treason- 
able enterprise. Yet the promoters of disaffection 
miscalculated the numbers and strength of their 
party, and the resulting demonstration was factitious 
and puerile. 

Lord Dorchester was withdrawn from Canada in 
the midst of this small and abortive mutiny. For 
sixteen years, all told, this gallant soldier of Wolfe's 
army had administered the country he helped to 
conquer, and no Governor before or since has earned 
a more deserving fame. Quebec and Montreal strove 
to outdo each other in the protestations of loyalty 
and regret marking their valedictory addresses. On 
the 9th of July, 1796, the frigate Active embarked 
the veteran Governor, and sailed for England. The 
vessel was wrecked, however, off the island of 
Anticosti, fortunately without loss of life; and in 
small boats Lord Dorchester and his companions 
reached Isle Percee, where they were afterwards 
picked up by a ship from Halifax and conveyed to 
England. 

General Prescott, who succeeded to the governor- 
ship, was a man of harsher temperament. But 
although his anxiety for the loyalty of the French 

2C 



386 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

province was much increased by the intrigues of 
revolutionary agents, he soon perceived their plans to 
be fatuous and their enterprise devoid of importance. 
While the forward spirits in Quebec were leavening 
the mass of the habitants with specious reports of a 
French fleet ready to co-operate with them, a force 
composed for the most part of ill-disposed Americans 
was to percolate into Canada from Vermont, This 
so-called fleet consisted of a ship, ironically called 
the Olive Branchy which had sailed from Ostend 
bound for Vermont with twenty thousand stand 
of arms, several pieces of artillery, and a quantity 
of ammunition. She had not got far on her way, 
however, before a British cruiser seized her and 
bore her into Portsmouth harbour. 

Meanwhile, Du Milliere, an alleged French 
General, was scattering money about on the borders 
of Vermont, while a plausible American was intrigu- 
ing at Quebec. With timber cutters and the simplest 
of artisans as his confederates, this misguided rev- 
olutionist hatched his theatrical conspiracy in the 
neighbouring woods. He proposed to overcome the 
city-guard with laudanum ; and fifteen thousand men 
were only awaiting the uplifting of his hand ! These 
and similar illusions possessed a poor dupe named 
M'Lane, until the Government having decided 
upon the apprehension of the leading conspirators, 
M'Lane was arrested and charged with high treason. 



XVIII SOCIAL & POLITICAL PROGRESS 387 

Chief Justice Osgoode presided at the trial, and a 
jury condemned him to death. 

On the 2 1 St of July, 1797, above two thousand 
troops were drawn up in the streets of Quebec as the 
chief conspirator was led forth to his execution on 
the glacis just outside St. John's Gate. " I saw 
M'Lane conducted to the place of execution," writes 




PERCEE ROCK 



De Gaspe excitedly. " He was seated with his 
back to the horse on a wood-sleigh whose runners 
grated on the bare ground and stones. An axe and 
a block were on the front part of the conveyance. 
He looked at the spectators in a calm, confident 
manner, but without the least effrontery. He was 
a tall and remarkably handsome man. I heard some 
women of the lower class exclaim, whilst deploring 



388 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

his sad fate, ' Ah, if it were only as in old times, that 
handsome man would not have to die ! There 
would be plenty of girls ready to marry him in order 
to save his life ! ' And even several days after the 
execution I heard the same thing repeated. This 
belief, then universal among the lower class, must, I 
suppose, have arisen from the fact that many French 
prisoners, condemned to the stake by the savages, 
had owed their lives to the Indian women who had 
married them. The sentence on M'Lane, however, 
was executed in all its barbarity. I saw all with 
my own eyes, a big student named Boudrault lifting 
me up from time to time in his arms so that I might 
lose nothing of the horrible butchery. Old Dr. 
Duvert was near us, and he drew out his watch as 
soon as Ward the hangman threw down the ladder 
upon which M'Lane was stretched on his back, with 
the cord round his neck made fast to the beam 
of the gallows. ... ' He is quite dead,' said Dr. 
Duvert, when the hangman cut down the body at 
the end of about twenty-five minutes. . . . The 
spectators who were nearest to the scaffold say that 
the hangman then refused to proceed further with 
the execution . . . and it was only after a good 
supply of guineas that the sheriff succeeded in 
making him execute all the sentence, and that after 
each act of the fearful drama his demands became 
more and more exorbitant. Certain it is that after 



XVIII SOCIAL & POLITICAL PROGRESS 389 

that time Mr. Ward became quite a personage, 
never walking in the streets except with silk stock- 
ings, a three-cornered hat, and a sword at his side. 
Two watches, one in his breeches pocket and the 




HON. WILLIAM OSGOODE 

(First Chief Justice of Upper Canada) 



other hanging from his neck by a silver chain, 
completed his toilet." 

With Black, the ship-carpenter who turned king's 
evidence against M'Lane, the reward was far different. 
Blood-money failed to solace him for the contumely 
heaped upon him ; and, according to the historian 
Garneau, he was so overcome by public contempt 



390 



OLD QUEBEC 



CHAP. 



that after some years he was reduced to begging his 
bread in the streets of Quebec. 

Since the enactment of this gruesome tragedy 
more than a century ago, the steep declivity which 
joins the Lower to the Upper Town, just outside St. 
John's Gate, has retained the name of Gallows Hill. 
No other executions appear to have taken place upon 




NEW ST. LOUIS GATE 



the spot, a well-known hillock upon the Plains of 
Abraham having been for many years the Golgotha 
of Quebec, while Gallows Hill only served this 
purpose during a transition period. By 1814 we 
find an execution taking place from the gaol erected 
four years before in St. Stanislaus Street within the 
walls. On the 20th of May in this year, Patrick 
Murphy paid the extreme penalty of the law for the 



XVIII SOCIAL & POLITICAL PROGRESS 391 

wilful murder of Marie Anne Dussault of the Parish 
of Les Escuriels. Four years later Charles Alarie and 
Thomas Thomas were executed at the same place, 
" for stealing to the value of forty shillings in a vessel 
on a navigable river." The same register chronicles 
the dire fate of John Hart, a Nova Scotian who, 
for larceny, was sentenced to six months' imprison- 




I) MARKET SQUARE, UPPER TOWN 



ment, and to be publicly " whipt between ten and 
twelve in the market-place." Hart had no stomach 
for this ignominy, and escaped from gaol on the 
14th of February, 1826. Having been recaptured 
three days later, in November of that year he stood 
with the noose about his neck upon the fatal door. 

It is doubtful, indeed, whether the unfortunate 
creatures behind those stout walls on the Cote St. 



29^ 



OLD QUEBEC 



CHAP. 



Stanislaus ever breathed the prayer contained in a 
quaint inscription which till lately survived upon 
the lintel of their prison-house : " Career iste bonos 
a pravis vindicare possit." ^ To-day the building 
itself serves a more kindly purpose, though the 
pious legend over the doorway might need but 
slight revision. Morrin College occupies one wing, 







FRONTENAC TERRACE TO-DAY 



and the other contains the well-stocked library of the 
Literary and Historical Society of Quebec. Valuable 
manuscripts have taken the place of useless male- 
factors in the donjon keep, and the vaults are full 
of the gold and myrrh of history. 

The punishment of crime undoubtedly underwent 
more change In the last half of the nineteenth century 

1 " May this prison cause the wicked to bear testimony to the just." 



XVIII SOCIAL & POLITICAL PROGRESS 393 

than during several of the preceding centuries. 
There is, for instance, a striking resemblance be- 
tween the public whipping of John Hart and the 
chastisement of offenders so long before as the time 
of Frontenac. In the year 1681, one Jean Rattier 
was condemned to death, but his sentence was 
commuted on condition of accepting the post of 
public executioner. Fourteen years afterwards 
Rattler's own wife was apprehended for theft, and 
according to her sentence, she was publicly whipped 
in the Lower Town Market-place by the dutiful 
husband. 



CHAPTER XIX 

THE STORY OF THE GREAT TRADING COMPANIES 

But now to leave the fortress city for a little space, 
and see its influence working in the wilds which it 
had commanded by the valour of its adventurers and 
traders. While England and France had been con- 
tending on the St. Lawrence for mastery, and the 
struggle to gain or to retain the Gibraltar of America 
had dragged its length through generations, far off 
in the white north another strife between the civil 
energies of both nations was being waged. The 
English explorers — Frobisher, Davis, Hudson, and 
Baffin — had been the first to reach the northern 
coast from the sea, giving their names to water and 
territory which have since become familiar to the 
civilised world. Theirs was the old dream — a north- 
western route to India and China. No such vision, 
however, had presented itself to the French explorers 
who, about the same time as the English, planted 
their flag upon those barren shores, and pushed up 
from the south, partly to explore, but more certainly 

394 




i/i'i'irnrf i/i/nni/ (>/ LanM^uJ 



cH. XIX THE GREAT COMPANIES i,^s 

to develop the trade in furs which the Compagnie 
des cents Associes^ founded by Richelieu in 1627, 
had already worked to advantage. The charter of 
this Company, indeed, did not include the regions 
of Hudson's Bay, but was confined to the province 
of Canada alone. To-day, Canada comprises all the 
vast territory north of the 49th parallel of latitude, 
even to the pole ; then its sphere of influence 
stretched westward to the Missouri and the Missis- 
sippi, and southward to Louisiana; while those regions 
now called Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Athabasca, 
Assiniboine, and the Klondike were as yet unknown. 
When Hearne, the Hudson's Bay Company explorer, 
pushed his way northward and westward to the 
copper mine on the Copper River, it seemed as if 
the ultimate ends of the world had been reached, and 
that the vast region of ice and snow, inhabited by 
wandering tribes of Indians, would be for ever the 
property of a trading company. 

So far back as 1630 an agency of commerce and 
exploration was founded in Quebec, under the name 
of the Beaver Company. This was forty years be- 
fore the Hudson's Bay Company received its charter 
from the second Charles. The French went so far 
in their eagerness for territory that they even claim 
to have discovered Hudson's Bay, through one 
Jean Bourdon, in 1656. This claim is not ad- 
mitted, however, in the Jesuit Relations^ where, in 



396 OLD QUEBEC chap, xix 

1672, Father Albanel writes: " Hitherto this voyage 
had been considered impossible to Frenchmen, who, 
after having undertaken it three times, and not 
having been able to surmount the obstacles, had seen 
themselves to abandon it in despair of success." The 
claims of England to the territory were undoubted; 
but there can be no question that Frenchmen were 
the first traders in the vicinity of Hudson's Bay. 

The names of two stand out clearly, first as agents 
of French enterprise, and afterwards of successful 
English adventure, in this early commercial history 
of the far north ; where, for nearly two centuries and 
a half, British energy and justice, and the honesty 
of English rule has, through the Hudson's Bay 
Company, worked southward to meet the ever 
increasing territory owned by the French until 1759. 
The Frenchmen whose names are so identified with 
the early history of Hudson's Bay were Medard 
Chouart, called also Groseilliers, and Pierre Radisson. 
They had emigrated from France as young men in 
the middle years of the century, and settled at first 
in Three Rivers. After a somewhat intricate matri- 
monial experience, Radisson had established relations 
which afterwards stood them both in good stead, 
at the same time typifying the ambiguous nature 
of international relations in the far north. On the 
French side he was son-in-law to Abraham Martin, 
whose name was given to the Heights of Abraham ; 




MR. SAMIKI. HK.ARNE 



(Explorer of the Hudson's Bay Company and Chief Factor at Prince of Wales Fort, 
Hudson's Bay) 



cH. XIX THE GREAT COMPANIES 399 

he was also son-in-law to Sir John Kirke, a brother 
of the English admiral to whom Champlain sur- 
rendered Quebec ; while to bind him closer to the 
companion of his adventurous life, he was brother- 
in-law to Groseilliers. 

Thus allied by disposition and relationship the 
two enterprising Frenchmen, allured by visions of 
fortune and adventure in the unknown regions 
of the north, soon abandoned the safe comforts 
of town life ; and having served a probation in 
several short expeditions, they at last applied to 
the reigning powers in Quebec for leave to oper- 
ate on a larger scale. The existing Company, how- 
ever, jealous for its monopoly, hedged them round 
with such difficult conditions that the young men 
broke impatiently from all control and plunged into 
the wilds of the West, penetrating at least as far as 
Lake Winnipeg. But Quebec was a stern step- 
mother, and when they returned, instead of meet- 
ing congratulation, they were arrested and fined for 
illicit trading. After a vain appeal to Paris, find- 
ing themselves rejected and discredited among their 
own countrymen, the two adventurers performed the 
first of those political somersaults which made them 
a nine days' wonder alternately in London and Paris, 
and finally brought to one, at least, an inglorious 
competency of ^f 10 a month. Fifty eventful years 
were, however, to roll past before that anti-climax 



400 OLD QUEBEC chap, xix 

to the drama of their lives. To begin with, when 
they had shaken off the dust of New France, they 
repaired to Boston, propounding to the New Eng- 
land traders the novel scheme for furnishing an 
expedition to be sent round to Hudson's Bay by 
way of the sea ; at the same time offering their 
own experience for service in the undertaking. Al- 
though disposed to favour the proposal, the Boston 
merchants had no available ships of their own, 
but advised an application to the English Court. 
Arriving in England in 1667, the two friends were 
introduced by Lord Arlington, then ambassador in 
Paris, to Prince Rupert, the natural patron of all 
adventurers at the time, and who, moreover, was then 
expecting a grant of territory in America as a reward 
for his services to the royal cause. Already the 
merchants of London had been roused to the 
possibilities of this trade by the recent arrival of 
the first cargo of furs from New Amsterdam ; and 
now when the two impartial Frenchmen pointed 
out to them that the trade was being choked in 
Quebec, and that England had a golden oppor- 
tunity of profitable enterprise, two vessels, the 
Nonsuch and the Eagle, were fitted out without delay, 
and one Captain Gillam received instructions to in- 
vestigate and report. 

Such was the beginning of the Hudson's Bay 
Company. Having spent a winter at Fort Charles, 



cH.xix THE GREAT COMPANIES 



403 



the first fort on the Bay, so named after the royal 
patron, the adventurers returned to England in 1670 
with such solid proofs of the soundness of the 




PRINCE RUPERT 



speculation, that the new Company received a charter 
from the King under the title o{ '•'•The Governor and 
Company of Adventurers of England, Trading into 
Hudson's Bay." The Company were constituted 
lords and proprietors of the territories round Hud- 



404 



OLD QUEBEC chap. 



son's Bay, now called Rupert's Land, having powers 
like those of the feudal lords of an earlier time — "to 
employ ships of war, to erect forts, to make reprisals, 
to send home English traders who neglected their 
licenses, and to declare war or make peace with any 
people not Christian." Although the Declaration of 
Rights in 1689 limited the rights granted by exclu- 
sive charters, and allowed British subjects to trade 
freely to any quarter, yet the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany had in the twenty years previous to that date 
obtained such a hold upon the new territory, espe- 
cially by the erection of forts, that they easily left 
all competitors behind. 

The spirit of discovery was never so alive 
among the French as during those years follow- 
ing the expulsion of Radisson and Groseilliers ; 
yet the Government in Quebec was slow to realise 
the serious nature of the menace in the north; and 
from the official papers afterwards prepared for the 
British delegates at Utrecht, their easy confidence is 
thus described : — 

" Mr. Bailey, the Company's first Governor of 
their factories and settlements in that Bay, enter- 
tained a friendly correspondence by letters and 
otherwise with Monsieur Frontenac, then Governor 
of Canada, not in the least complaining, in several 
years, of any pretended injury done to France by 
the said Company's settling a trade and building a 



XIX THE GREAT COMPANIES 405 

fort at the bottom of Hudson's Bay, nor making pre- 
tensions to any right of France on that Bay, or to the 
countries bordering on it, till long after this time." 

Trouble, however, came in due course. With a 
natural distrust of renegade Frenchmen, Governor 
Bailey suspected the two friends of being concerned 
in a plot set on foot by certain Jesuit agents of 
the Intendant Talon in 1673, by which the loyalty 
of the Indians was to be alienated from the English 
traders. After scenes of personal violence, the al- 
leged traitors justified the suspicions of the Governor 
by severing once more the slender tie of their 
allegiance and returning to the service of France. 
Nor was it long before new fruits of their restless 
energy appeared. In 1681 the Compagnie du Nord 
was organised as a rival to the " Adventurers of 
England " ; and in the same year the Intendant 
Duchesneau complained to his Government of the 
aggressions of the English traders. 

" They " (the English), he wrote, " are still in 
Hudson's Bay on the north and do great damage to 
our fur trade. . . . The sole means to prevent them 
succeeding in what is prejudicial to us would be to 
drive them by main force from that Bay, which 
belongs to us. Or, if there would be an objection in 
coming to that extremity, to construct forts on the 
rivers falling into the lakes, in order to stop the 
Indians at these points." 



4o6 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

From this time to the peace of Utrecht there 
was war between the Hudson's Bay Company 
and the French. A veiled expedition set out from 
Quebec in 1682, under the guidance of GroseilHers 
and Radissbn, to attack the forts on the Bay ; and 
by their effrontery and good generalship they at last 
became possessed of the newly built Fort Nelson, 
with Bridgar its Governor, and returned next year 
with their prisoners and spoils to Quebec. But this 
triumph was soon converted by their lawless temper 
into disgrace and condemnation; and to escape 
penalty for misappropriating large quantities of fur, 
the two leaders were compelled to fly from New 
France for the second time, and once more take refuge 
in Paris. 

But now the English Company decided to make 
another bid for the services of these versatile bush- 
rangers, who once more proved their graceful facility 
for playing a double game. Radisson was sent by 
the English ambassador to London, where he became 
a lion of society, and was presented to Charles IL 
John Selwyn thus describes his appearance : ^ — 

"To the Duke's Playhouse, where Radisson, the 
American fur-trader, was in the royal box. Never 
was such a combination of French, English, and 
Indian savage as Sir John Kirke's son-in-law. . . . 
He was not wont to dress so when he was last here, 

^ Quoted by Beckles Willson, The Great Company, vol. i. p. 141. 



XIX THE GREAT COMPANIES 407 

but he has got him a new coat with much lace upon 
it, which he wears with his leather breeches and 
shoes. His hair is a perfect tangle. It is said he 
has made an excellent fortune for himself" 

Radisson's star, however, was almost set, for 
although he enriched his new masters with fresh 
cargoes of spoil from the north, his reckless disposi- 
tion had again involved him in a quarrel with a 
powerful agent of the Company, and on return- 
ing to England he found himself discredited and 
neglected. ' With a pension of ten pounds a month, 
paid by the Company only after the strenuous 
Radisson had had recourse to law, he continued to 
live in obscurity until 1720, his friend Groseilliers 
having died ten years before. He had paid dearly 
for his lack of patriotism. An affected or assumed 
distrust of him on the part of the Hudson's Bay 
Company, who had profited enormously by his 
services, was the unconvincing reason given for 
mean neglect and an injustice only at last set right 
by the law invoked through Sir William Young 
and Richard Cradock, members of the Company. 
Brigand or traitor though he was, as such he had 
been the agent of the Hudson's Bay Company, and 
his bold services were worthy of reward. 

Meantime the Company's servants were being 
hard pressed in the Bay, confronted as they were by 
one of the best commanders of the time, the famous 



4o8 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

Sieur d' Iberville, who gained his first laurels in this 
obscure conflict. Although the glory of the cam- 
paign was reaped by their French assailants, who, 
between the years 1682 and 1688, inflicted losses on 
the Company to the extent of seven ships with their 
cargoes, and six forts and factories, yet the material 
advantages turned out in the end to be on the side 
of the English traders. Among other indiscretions, 
the conquerors fell to quarrelling with the Indian 
tribes, who soon made their position on the shores 
of Hudson's Bay intolerable ; while the coureurs de 
boiSy spreading out from their headquarters at 
Michillimackinac, diverted the Indian trappers from 
French and English forts alike. 

On the other hand, the Hudson's Bay Company 
were able, in 1690, to declare a dividend of seventy- 
five per cent on their original stock ; and on the 
accession of William III. they presented him with 
a substantial proof of the progress of their under- 
taking : — 

" On this happy occasion," so their address ran, 
" we desire also most humbly to present to your 
Majesty a dividend of 225 guineas upon a ^3^° 
stock in the Hudson's Bay Company . . . and 
although we have been the greatest sufi'erers of 
any Company from those enemies of all mankind, 
the French, yet when your Majesty's just arms 
shall have given repose to all Christendom, we 



XIX THE GREAT COMPANIES 409 

also shall enjoy our share of these great benefits, 
and do not doubt but to appear often with this 
golden fruit in our hands, under the happy influence 
of your Majesty's most gracious protection over us 
and all our concerns." 

William acknowledged this manifestation of 
loyalty by granting the Company a confirmation 
of their charter, and by including a statement of 
their grievances in his first declaration of war 
against France; but it is evident that the Home 
Government at that time took little real heed to 
the interests of this distant dependency, and by a 
casual clause in the Treaty of Ryswick the most 
important ports on Hudson's Bay were ceded to the 
French. 

The Company's prospects after that surrender 
were indeed gloomy ; shares fell low, indifference and 
ignorance prevailing in high places ; and the faithful 
remnant could only hope for a renewal of the war. 
But at last Fortune began to smile again ; for although 
no important battles were ever afterwards fought in 
the region of the Bay, the brilliant campaigns of 
Marlborough in Europe reflected glory upon the 
struggling traders in the New World, and gave them 
prestige and power ; until finally, by the Treaty of 
Utrecht in 17 13, the huge undefined domain of 
Hudson's Bay was unconditionally yielded up to 
Great Britain. After many years one more hapless 



4IO OLD QUEBEC chaf. 

attempt was made to capture the forts of the north ; 
but thenceforth the French put forward no regular 
claim to the territory so long disputed. 

Although the merchants of New England in due 
course made efforts to secure a share of the fur 
trade, the only real competition, from first to last, 
was offered by the French explorers. In 1684 
Du Lhut had been sent westward by Governor La 
Barre to counteract the influence of the Hudson's 
Bay Company with the Indians, and he had only 
reported to his master that in two years not a 
single savage would visit the English at Hudson's 
Bay. Iberville's victories in the north, however, had 
distracted the attention of the Government from 
this enterprise, and the work was left to be carried 
on by independent traders. A profitable trade in furs 
sprang up on the lines of La Verendrye's discoveries, 
and the forts of Michillimackinac and Sault Ste. 
Marie continued to flourish until the traders were 
finally withdrawn from all the outlying regions to 
defend Quebec against the English. 

It had been a gallant fight, in which the native 
qualities of both races had been seen to advantage. 
Ardent, brave, adventurous, the Frenchman had ever 
been the best of pioneers. With a faculty for ac- 
quiring languages and dialects, he quickly adapted 
himself to the ways of the Indian, won their sympathy, 
and treated them with an equality and freedom which 



XIX THE GREAT COMPANIES 411 

made their path of peaceful conquest easy and trade 
a cheerful jugglery. From first to last there entered 
into the life of the French trader and adventurer an 
element of patriotism and romance — conquest for 
conquest's sake and for the glory of French enterprise. 
He must ever remain the more eloquent, the more 
picturesque figure, the more admired pioneer of the 
Far North. But his rival, the Briton, had qualities 
which outwore him, and the patriarchal and stable 
methods of the Hudson's Bay Company prevailed in 
the end. 

The heroic age of the Company had passed away ; 
and now a long and uneventful period began, in which, 
as in the Middle Ages, the energies of men were slowly 
gathering for the more strenuous activity of modern 
conditions. 

" Pro pelle cutem^' the chosen motto of the 
Company, was perhaps humorously understood as 
conveying loosely the notion of an exchange of 
peltries ; for certainly the vindictive principle, " a skin 
for a skin," did not mark their dealings with the 
Indian tribes. From the first they were fortunate in 
encountering more peaceable races than those oppos- 
ing the colonists further south; and a regular trade was 
conducted upon the basis of a fixed scale of values, 
the unit of calculation being one beaver skin. Thus 
a gun could be procured for eight, or ten, or twelve 
winter beavers, according to the classification of the 



412 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

skin by size and weight. One beaver was the 
equivalent of a hatchet, or four pounds of shot, or 
half a pound of beads, or a pound of tobacco. A 
laced coat was worth six beavers, and a looking- 
glass and comb cost two beavers ; and so on through 
all the luxuries and necessities of Indian life, other 
pelts being always reduced to the terms of beaver 
skins. 

A traveller^ who visited the country at a some- 
what later period of the eighteenth century has drawn 
a picture of the ornate ceremony, which, on the Indian 
sideat least, transformed barter into a solemn function, 
and provided the exiled traders with a comedy of 
manners. He describes how, salutes having been fired 
on both sides, the Indians are elaborately welcomed 
within the fort, where, after long silence and much 
tobacco-smoking, the subject of the visit is distantly 
broached, and the chief receives propitiatory gifts 
of brightly coloured apparel : " A coarse cloth coat, 
either red or blue, lined with baize, and having 
regimental cuffs ; and a waistcoat and breeches of 
baize. The suit is ornamented with orris lace. He 
is also presented with a white orris shirt ; his 
stockings are of yarn, one of them red, the other 
blue, and tied below the knee with worsted garters ; 
his Indian shoes are sometimes put on, but he fre- 
quently walks in his stocking feet; his hat is coarse, 

1 Umfreville, Present State of Hudion s Bay, i 790. ^ 



XIX THE GREAT COMPANIES 413 

and bedecked with three ostrich feathers of various 
colours, and a worsted sash tied round the crown ; a 
small silk handkerchief is tied round his neck, and 
this compleats his dress." 

The Chief thus gaily equipped is conducted back 
from the fort to his own tent. "In the front a 
halbard and ensign are carried ; next a drummer 
beating a march ; then several of the factory servants 
bearing the bread, prunes, pipes, tobacco, brandy, etc. 
Then comes the Captain [Chief], walking quite 
erect and stately, smoaking his pipe, and conversing 
with the Factor." 

Afterwards came the smoking of the sacred 
calumet, the pledge of peace and unity, followed 
by the inspection of the merchandise, and a speech 
from the Chief in this wise : — 

"You told me last year to bring many Indians to 
trade, which I promised to do ; you see I have not 
lied ; here are a great many young men come with 
me; use them kindly, I say; let them trade good 
goods ; I say ! We lived hard last winter and 
hungry, the powder being short measure and bad, I 
say ! Tell your servants to fill the measure, and not 
to put their thumbs within the brim ; take pity on 
us, take pity on us, I say ! We paddle a long way 
to see you ; we love the English. Let us trade good 
black tobacco, moist and hard twisted ; let us see it 
before it is opened. Take pity on us, take pity on 



414 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

us, I say ! The guns are bad ; let us trade light 
guns, small in the hand and well shaped, with locks 
that will not freeze in the winter, and red gun cases. 
Let the young men have more than measure of 
tobacco ; cheap kettles, thick and high. Give us 
good measure of cloth ; let us see the old measure ; 
do you mind me ? The young men love you, by 
coming so far to see you ; take pity, take pity, I say ; 
and give them good goods ; they like to dress and 
be fine. Do you understand me?" 

By such yearly functions, by gifts, and a sober 
friendliness never dissociated from the authority of 
the ruling race, the English company held its sway 
after the French had retired. 

About this time, however, loud complaints were 
heard on all hands of the want of enterprise of the 
Hudson's Bay Company in not seizing the oppor- 
tunities afforded by the charter. Its trade was 
lethargic, its traders were timid or slothful, its people 
possessed none of that audacity and adventure which 
had sent Frenchmen like Du Lhut and La Verendrye 
into the wilds intent on territory or trade. They 
yawned and were content with the trade which came 
their way. It seemed as though they smugly counted 
on their business virtue to attract, and their yearly 
gifts and patronage to allure the fur-hunting tribes. 
A world lay spread around them, and they remained 
at the doors of their posts and forts. No joy of the 



XIX THE GREAT COMPANIES 415 

woods possessed them, no faith In the future drew 
them on ; they followed the makers of Empire, 
guessing nothing of what Empire meant, hating their 
rivals for gifts they neither possessed nor desired. 
One Joseph Robson, who worked as surveyor in the 




SIR ALEXANDER MACKENZIE 

(Celebrated North-West explorer) 



northern forts in 1744, relates a conversation held 
that year with the captain at York Factory : — 

" I expressed my surprise," he writes, " that the 
Company did not send Englishmen up the rivers to 
encourage and endear the natives, and by that means 
put a stop to the progress of the French. . . . He 
said that he believed the French would have all the 
country in another century. To which I could not 



4i6 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

help immediately replying that such an alienation 
could only be effected through the remissness of the 
English." Robson next requested leave to travel 
inland ; and " this brought on dismal tales of the 
difficulties to be encountered in such an expedition ; 
and when I talked of going up rivers, I was told of 
stupendous heaps of ice and dreadful waterfalls, which 
would not only obstruct my passage but endanger 
my life. To confirm this, he said that Governor 
Maclish once attempted to go a little way up Nelson 
River to look for timber in order to build a factory, 
but found such heaps of ice in the river that they 
were discouraged from proceeding any higher." ^ 

Umfreville, the writer and traveller already 
quoted, likewise challenges the Company for its 
" total want of spirit, to push on its work with that 
vigour which the importance of the contest deserves. 
The merchants from Canada," he continues, " have 
been heard to acknowledge that were the Hudson's 
Bay Company to prosecute their trade in a spirited 
manner, they must be soon obliged to give up all 
thoughts of penetrating into the country ; as from 
the vicinity of the Company's factories to the inland 
parts, they can afford to undersell them in every 
branch." 

This advantage enabled the older Company to 
reach the stations on the Bay at an earlier season of 

1 Robson, Six Tears" Residence in Hudson's Bay, 1752. 



XIX THE GREAT COMPANIES 417 

the year than was possible for their rivals by the 
overland route. Yet such was the zeal animating 
the Canadian companies that, conquering all diffi- 
culties of season and situation, they delivered goods 
to the Indians in their villages and tepees, thus 
anticipating their journey to the north ; and some 
time after the Conquest forty canoes of about four 
tons burden each left the St, Lawrence every year 
for the interior. 

The fall of Quebec marked a crisis in the affairs 
of the Hudson's Bay Company, and for a time in- 
deed it seemed as if it also would pass away with 
the old regime. Their foes at this time began to 
multiply ; for while the veteran coureurs de bois of 
Canada were ready enough, after the Conquest, to 
take service under their new masters, the Colonial 
forces were now further augmented by a large body 
of Scotch settlers, partly Jacobite refugees, and partly 
soldiers of the Highland regiments of Amherst and 
Wolfe. With vitality thus renewed the Canadians 
now turned to the west, their emissaries penetrating 
as far westward as Sturgeon Lake on the Saskat- 
chewan, where a trading station was erected to divert 
the Indians from the forts at Hudson's Bay. But 
suddenly the "Adventurers of England " awoke from 
their long sleep, and Hearne, their agent, was forth- 
with sent to open up new territories, across which a 
chain of stations soon marked the successive stages 



4i8 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

of their progress, from Cumberland House to distant 
Athabasca. The spirit of competition was now 
aflame, and on many occasions in the course of the 
next fifty years it caused the opposing Companies 
to pass the Hmits of commercial strife and contend 
in open warfare, until mutual interest and vice-regal 
authority at last combined to reconcile them. 

A great and threatening rival to the Hudson's 
Bay Company had come. The North-West Com- 
pany, founded at Montreal in 1782, under the 
leadership of Simon M'Tavish, was founded on 
principles which made it a power against the older 
organisation, its agents receiving a stimulus to enter- 
prise from a share in the profits of the undertaking 
and pay double that given by the English Company. 
These advantages proved so potent, that soon after 
beginning operations the North-Westers were able to 
send abroad skins to four times the value of those 
exported by their great rival. 

But this zeal was met in a new and robust spirit 
which held the issue of the conflict long in doubt. 
The beginning of the new century saw its force 
increase — a civil war carried on beyond the vision of 
the nations in the vast forests of the north. The 
story of this Homeric struggle, however, with its 
romantic episodes and opposing heroes — Cuthbert 
Grant, Colin Robertson, Duncan Cameron, and the 
rest — the battle of Greys against Blues, in which the 



XIX THE GREAT COMPANIES 419 

chiefs of the north, issuing with their wild bois 
brules from the stronghold of Fort Wilham,' raided 
and harried the despised "old countrymen," the 
"Pork-eaters," the "Workers in gardens," or 
suffered reprisals from these underestimated rivals ; 
the history of Lord Selkirk's settlement in the Red 




SIMON m'tAVISH 

(Founder of the North-West Company in 1783) 

River, around which the final battle wound in the 
year when Europe was witnessing the last great effort 
of Napoleon — all this does not fall within the scope 
of the present work. 

In 1 821, under pressure from the Duke of 
Richmond, the Greys and Blues agreed to merge 

1 Founded in honour of William M'Gillivray in 1805. 



420 



OLD QUEBEC 



CHAP. 



their forces in an equal partnership, which, retaining 
the name of the older Company, was framed on 
the co-operative principle so effective in the success 




EAKL OF SELKIRK 

(Founder of Selkirk Settlement. 1820) 



of the North- Western concern. Having received a 
fresh charter from the Government, the new Com- 
pany began a peaceful and not less profitable career, 
until in exchange for an indemnity of three hundred 
thousand pounds, and a grant of seven million acres 



XIX THE GREAT COMPANIES 421 

in the best districts of the North-West Territories, 
the feudal rights of the Hudson's Bay Company 
were at last taken over by the Dominion of Canada. 
The Company, however, still pursues its prosperous 
way. Its forts and posts are sources of influence, 
centres of safety ; its officers and men a devoted 
and upright band who have proved their right to the 
gratitude of the empire — unliveried policemen of 
good government and national integrity. 



CHAPTER XX 



THE NEW CENTURY 



Quebec entered upon the nineteenth century equipped 
with the machinery of constitutional government, 
which was, however, clogged in action by unhappy 
divisions within the city. The four years of Sir James 
Craig's rule were disturbed by a truceless war between 
the Legislative Assembly and the Governor, whose 
arbitrary temper ill qualified him to lead a people 
still groping for standing-ground within the area 
of their new constitution. He looked at popular 
institutions with the distrust natural to an old 
soldier, and the period of his administration became 
known in the annals of the province as " the reign 
of little King Craig." Born at Gibraltar, he 
had entered the army at the tender age of 
fifteen, and having earned rapid promotion on 
many battlefields, he finally reached the rank of 
major-general at the close of the American revolu- 
tionary war. Further experience in India and 
the Mediterranean increased his reputation, and 

422 



CHAP. XX THE NEW CENTURY 



423 



in the autumn of 1807 he arrived in Quebec full 
of military honours, and imbued with the high 
political views then held by the most exclusive 
wing of the Tory party. The members of the 
Legislative Council and the administrative clique 
drew close about the person of this new champion, 
and in the same degree the French majority in 



i^^ 











FERRY-BOAT ON THE ST. LAWRENCE 



the Legislative Assembly held aloof. The burning 
questions of the day, whether the judges should 
sit and vote in Parliament, whether the Assembly 
could communicate directly with the Home Govern- 
ment — these were but the occasions of an antagonism 
really due to diversity of race and temperament ; 
for, as Lord Durham discovered a generation later, 
" this sensitive and polite people " revolted, not so 



424 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

much against political disability, as against the 
exclusive manners and practices of a ruling class 
far removed from themselves by language and mode 
and code, who ruffled their racial pride at every 
turn. 

The new Governor was now the forcible instru- 
ment of this unsympathetic power. With an undue 
sense of the importance of the vice-royalty, the ipse 
dixit of " the little king " dissolved Parliament on 
more than one occasion. On the other side, Le 
Canadien, the journal of the French party, rhetori- 
cally stood for liberty, fraternity, and equality as 
against arbitrary government. Moderate men, waver- 
ing for a time, were at last scandalised by its editorial 
violence, and rallied to the side of the Governor. 
The situation quickly became acute, and stringent 
measures of repression were adopted by Sir James 
Craig and his councillors. The offending journal 
was suppressed ; five recalcitrant officers of militia 
were relieved of their command ; and, finally, the city 
guards were strengthened to meet the peril of a 
possible insurrection. Soon a new element of danger 
appeared in the threatened war between England and 
the United States, offering to the aggrieved party a 
tempting occasion for redress. Fortunately, how- 
ever, neither the unwisdom of the English Govern- 
ment nor the neighbourhood of a hostile power 
availed to drive or lure the Canadians into the 



XX THE NEW CENTURY 425 

crooked path of rebellion. As the past had already 
proved, their country's peril was sufficient to 
unite in hearty concord all parties, French and 
English, in the defence of the common heritage ; 
the experience of half a century of British rule 
having convinced even the survivors of the Ancien 
Regime that however haughty or aloof officials 
might be, security, order, and justice prevailed 
under the British flag. 

Considering the especial temptations to treason 
bearing upon the French population at this crisis, 
such loyal conduct is the more praiseworthy. In the 
first place, it was maintained throughout a war which 
was part of England's life-and-death struggle against 
France, the mother-country of French Canadians. 
Again, apart from this natural affinity with the 
chiefest enemy of England, material causes operated 
yet further to strain their faith ; for the enter- 
prise of Montgomery and Arnold was about to be 
resumed; and the French must choose either to suffer 
the terrors of a hostile invasion, or to join the armies 
of the United States in driving the British power 
for ever from the Continent. Finally, as if these tests 
of loyalty were not enough, the port of Quebec was 
invaded by English press-gangs, who terrorised the 
quays of the Lower Town and kidnapped able- 
bodied youths of both races. But notwithstanding 
so many temptations to swerve from allegiance, 



426 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

when news came in June, 1812, that the Americans 
had declared war against England, the loyal senti- 
ment of the Canadians was unanimous, the Maritime 
Provinces joining their forces with those of Lower 
and Upper Canada to repel the invaders; and Major- 
General Isaac Brock, the Lieutenant-Governor, in 
his speech to the Legislature of the Upper Province, 
thus expressed the feeling of the entire country : — 

" We are engaged," he declared, " in an awful and 
eventful contest. By unanimity and despatch in our 
councils, and vigour in our operations, we may teach 
the enemy this lesson, that a country defended by 
free men enthusiastically devoted to the cause of 
their king and constitution can never be conquered." 

Thus, instead of the support on which they calcu- 
lated, the invading army was to encounter a resolute 
and united foe. Nor were the causes of Canadian 
loyalty far to seek. The French population, by nature 
loyal and content, were unwilling to sever the ties of 
noble monarchical tradition binding them to the past, 
and embark upon the troubled seas of American 
politics, there to be lost among loose and powerful 
majorities out of sympathy with their conservative 
ideals, their temperament, and those racial rights so 
fully acknowledged by England after the Conquest. 
Also east and west, the Maritime Provinces and 
Upper Canada contained an element already de- 
votedly attached to the Crown. The sacrifices of the 



XX THE NEW CENTURY 427 

United Empire loyalists made almost sacred the soil 
of Upper Canada, now Ontario. Men who had 
already braved the anger of their fellow-citizens in 
the American Colonies, and abandoned their homes 
to witness to the ideal of a united empire, were 




SIR GORDON DRUMMONO 

(Lieut. -Governor of Upper Canada, December 1813 to April 1815) 

not likely at the last to throw away their crown of 
service and stultify themselves before the world. 

Upper Canada was already a flourishing colony, 
containing at the outbreak of this American war 
about a quarter of the population of the two 
provinces combined. To balance inferiority in 
point of numbers, the peculiar circumstances of the 
English colonists — affinity of race to the mother- 



428 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

country, a fertile territory, the memory of special 
benefits received — combined to bring the zealous 
British sentiment of the new province into special 
prominence at this crisis. Inspired by the wise 
counsels of Sir Guy Carleton, the British Govern- 
ment had there formerly pursued a generous policy 
now about to bear opportune fruit; for when, at the 
end of the War of Independence, the loyalist refugees 
were crowding to the appointed places of rendezvous 
along the northern frontier, facing the future unpro- 
vided, the large sum of ^3,000,000 sterling had 
been granted to recompense their losses, in addi- 
tion to further help allowed more needy settlers. 
Under the four years of Colonel Simcoe's sym- 
pathetic rule (1791-95), the province had trebled its 
population, a vigorous immigration policy enticing 
crowds of wavering loyalists or enterprising specu- 
lators from the south. "Where," asks Brock in his 
proclamation at the opening of the war, "where 
is to be found, in any part of the world, a growth 
so rapid in prosperity and wealth as this colony 
exhibits ? " 

Yet the inhabitants of Upper Canada, for all their 
special interest in the British connection, hardly ex- 
ceeded the Lower Province in the zeal with which 
they rose to meet the new invasion. Indeed, the 
United States had entirely miscalculated the strength 
of this spirit of loyalty, which proved a more potent 



XX THE NEW CENTURY 429 

inspiration than their own vaunted superiority in 
resources and population : for, on the American side, 
recruits came slowly forward, and the movement 
had none of the spontaneity evident among their 
adversaries. The " Loyal and Patriotic Society," 
established by Bishop Strachan, then rector of York, 
undertook to provide for the national wants of Canada 
created by the war. The sum of ^120,000 was raised 
in Upper Canada and the Maritime Provinces, while 
the Quebec Legislature contributed no less than 
;^2 50,000 towards preparations for defence. At 
the same time, the colonials were zealously enlist- 
ing, all men between the ages of sixteen and 
forty-five being required to serve in the militia ; 
and their strength was further supplemented by more 
than four thousand regulars, scattered throughout 
the country. 

The Commander-in-Chief of these forces was Sir 
George Prevost, who had come to Quebec as Governor 
in succession to Sir James Craig, a change much 
welcomed by the French Canadians; for although the 
new Governor was not an able general, he possessed 
the gentle art of conciliation, a gift of almost equal 
value at that critical time. As the New England States 
had been averse to war from the beginning, the adjoin- 
ing Maritime Provinces of Canada were spared the 
trial of invasion, and the quarrel was fought out along 
the southern border of Upper and Lower Canada. 



430 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

The American Commander, General Dearborn, 
divided his army of invasion into three parts, in- 
tending first to secure a base of operations at the 




MAJOR-GENERAL SIR ISAAC BROCK, K.B. 

(Administrator of Upper Canada, 1812) 



three important points of Detroit, Niagara, and 
Queenston, and thence to overrun the Upper 
Province. He was confident that, with the help 
of the disaffected colonists, these columns would 



XX THE NEW CENTURY 431 

soon be able to converge and march together upon 
the capital. General Hull, of Michigan, commanded 
the army of the west ; Van Rensselaer led the 
army of the centre against Niagara and Oueen- 
ston ; while the army of the north, under Dearborn 
himself, moved from Albany by Lake Champlain 
towards Ontario. 

On the Canadian side, Major-General Brock 
appeared to realise most clearly the need for decided 
measures. His commanding presence — he was six 
feet three inches in height — and his immense 
muscular strength were joined to an intense and 
chivalrous spirit which was a deciding influence in 
uniting the colonists to energetic defence. His 
practical sense appears in an order directing officers 
" On every occasion when in the field to dress in con- 
formity to the men, in order to avoid the bad conse- 
quence of a conspicuous dress," — an expedient only 
lately adopted in more modern warfare, and not 
until bitter necessity forced it. 

In other respects, however, we have outgrown the 
ideas entertained at that time on the subject of 
martial appearance, for the writer of the Ridout 
Letters^ says, immediately after the battle on Queen- 
ston Heights — 

" The American prisoners, officers, and men are 

^ Ten Yean of Upper Canada in Peace and War^ 1805-1815, being the Ridout 
Letters, luitb Annotations, by Matilda Edgar, 1 891. 



432 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

the most savage-looking fellows I ever saw. To 
strike a greater terror in their enemies they had 
allowed their beards on their upper lips to grow. 
This, however, had no other effect upon us than to 
raise sensations of disgust." 

Brock was a native of the Island of Guernsey, and 
had served with the armies of Britain in many parts 
of the world, being also present with Nelson at 
Copenhagen ; but had already served officially in 
Canada for ten years before the war. He 
now found himself opposed to the vainglorious 
Hull ; nor was it long before he justified his reputa- 
tion and won glory for the arms of Canada by 
capturing the American General at Detroit, together 
with 2500 troops and thirty-three cannon. Brock's 
ally on this occasion was the Chief Tecumseh, an 
Indian of reputed supernatural birth, the natives 
having been induced to throw in their lot with the 
British colonists in consequence of the seizure of the 
old port of Michillimackinac by a small force of 
regulars and Canadian voyageurs. Following his 
career of victory, Brock was soon afterwards con- 
fronted by the army of the Centre, consisting of 
six thousand Americans, and engaged in the memo- 
rable battle on Queenston Heights. Here, after a 
long and doubtful fight, the colonial forces were 
once more successful, though they paid a heavy price 
for victory in the loss of their wise and brave 



XX THE NEW CENTURY 433 

commander, whose name is endeared to all 
Canadians, and whose renown grows with suc- 
ceeding generations. 

Meanwhile General Dearborn had undertaken the 
invasion of Lower Canada with the army of the north, 
setting out from Albany to attack Montreal by way 
of Lake Cham plain ; and to oppose him Colonel 
De Salaberry, at the head of the French Canadian 
regiment of Voltigeurs, together with three hundred 
Indians and a force of rural militia, held an advanced 
post on the River Lacolle, De Salaberry was dis- 
tinguished by long experience of foreign service in 
the British army, having already confronted the 
Americans, when as a mere boy-subaltern he had 
covered the evacuation of Matilda. In 1795 ^^ 
commanded a company of Grenadiers in the ex- 
pedition to Martinique ; and some years later held 
the post of honour with the Light Brigade at the 
capture of Flushing. And now at last he brought 
his experience to the defence of his native province, 
where his name and fame are not more deeply 
venerated than in the English provinces. 

Reaching the outpost of Lacolle late in November, 
a strong force of Dearborn's army found the Canadian 
militia securely intrenched at Blairfindie. But the 
season was already far advanced ; and now successive 
blows fell in the news of Hull's surrender at Detroit 
and of the defeat on the Queenston Heights; so that 



434 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

at last the American commander despaired of success 
against the spirited defenders of Lower Canada, and 
decided to abandon the plans against Montreal and 
to fall back forthwith on Albany. Thus, apart from 
some successes won by the United States upon the 
sea, the result of the first campaign was altogether 
favourable to the Colonies. 

The second year of the war put the loyalty of 
Lower Canada to more crucial tests. Once more 
the Americans planned and exploited a threefold at- 
tack, in the west, centre, and east. In the west, they 
were repulsed at Frenchtown by General Proctor ; 
but in the centre this loss was more than counter- 
balanced by the control of Lake Ontario by Ameri- 
can vessels, leading to the capture of Fort York,^ 
the capital of the Upper Province, and of Fort 
George, near Niagara, the Canadian generals, Sheaffe 
and Vincent, being compelled to fall back upon 
Kingston and Burlington Heights. In following 
up these successes, however, the Americans were 
severely checked at Stoney Creek, near Hamilton ; 
while another blow was inflicted upon them by the 
skilful strategy of Lieutenant Fitzgibbon,who, having 
been warned of the enemy's advance by the heroic 
Laura Secord, devised a trap in which, with a 
handful of Canadians and Indians, he captured a 
large force under Colonel Boerstler, at Beaver Dams. 

1 Now Toronto. 



XX 



THE NEW CENTURY 



435 



But the tide of war turned once more against 
the Canadians, when the British fleet on Lake Erie 
surrendered to Commodore Perry, and Proctor, the 
victor of Frenchtown, met with a humiHating defeat 




DE SALAIiERRY 
(1778-1829) 



at the hands of General Harrison, a future President 
of the RepubHc, Chief Tecumseh being among the 
slain. On the ocean, however, British naval prestige 
was restored, and among the events of this year was 
the celebrated duel between the Shannon and the 
Chesapeake. But while, in the west and centre, the 



4j6 OLD QUEBEC chap, xx 

issue was hanging thus in doubt, events more decisive 
were happening in the east. 

The army of the north was sent once more against 
Montreal and Quebec, this time in two divisions, the 
first of which was to march northward from Albany, 
and at Chateauguay to effect a junction with the 
second division, coming down the St. Lawrence in 
three hundred boats from Sackett's Harbor. The 
St. Lawrence army, commanded by General Wilkinson, 
was intercepted by a force of French Canadians, and 
sustained a memorable defeat at Chrystler's Farm, near 
Long Sault Rapids ; and the force from Albany was 
now to meet a similar fate. Late in September this 
first division, under General Hampton, crossed the 
Canadian frontier south of the historical outpost of 
Isle-aux-Noix ; but as De Salaberry was once more 
in command of the advanced line of defence, again 
holding a strong position at Blairfindie, the enemy, 
in order to effect the necessary junction with the 
other division, was compelled to make a long detour 
by way of the Chateauguay River. In spite of 
the difficulties of the route, they pressed forward 
towards the shore of Lake St. Louis. De Salaberry 
was not dismayed by this new movement, and 
hastening westward from Blairfindie, he ascended 
the Chateauguay and took up a strong position 
on ground intersected by deep ravines. The same 
tactics which had destroyed Braddock's legion at 




A BEGGAR OF COTE BEAUPRE 



CHAP. XX THE NEW CENTURY 439 

Monongahela in 1775, were now brought to bear 
with equal effect upon the Americans themselves. 
The Canadian general, having destroyed the bridges, 
erected a triple line of defence, under cover of 
which he held his force, consisting of only three 
hundred Canadians, a band of Indians, and a few 
companies of Highlanders. Early in the morning 
of October 26th, the American army advancing to 
the ford, the banks of the river suddenly blazed with 
musketry fire. For four hours the invaders strove 
in vain to force the passages of the river in the face 
of De Salaberry's death-dealing trenches, bravely 
attempting to outflank the Voltigeurs ; but before 
those unyielding breastworks, numbers and impetu- 
osity were both unavailing ; and, at last, after heavy 
losses, Hampton was constrained to recall his men 
and retire from the field. This victory, nobly fought 
and won by the French Canadians, ranks with Carillon 
in the annals of the Lower Province, and the bullet- 
riven flags of both engagements are still shown among 
the trophies of Quebec. The loyalty and courage 
of the French population had decided the issue of 
another campaign in favour of Great Britain. 

In 1 8 14 the chief events of the war in Canada 
happened once more about Lake Champlain and 
Niagara. The invaders were again driven back with 
loss at Lacolle Mill ; but at the end of the season 
they recovered ground in this quarter by dispersing 



440 



OLD QUEBEC 



CHAP. 



the British army and the fleet of Lake Champlain at 
Plattsburg, an engagement which led to the recall of 
Sir George Prevost, whose bad generalship was blamed 
for this reverse. Meanwhile, the hottest battle of all 
the war had been fought in the Upper Province, when 
the American armies, planning to reach Kingston, 




ST. LOUIS STREET, PLACE D ARMES, AND NEW COURT HOUSE 



and having won some minor successes, were finally 
scattered at Lundy's Lane, near Niagara Falls, and 
compelled to fall back upon Lake Erie. 

But apart from the fortunes of war, when peace 
was finally proclaimed by the Treaty of Ghent in 
1 8 14, the chief gain to the British cause, so far at 
least as Canada was concerned, lay not so much in the 
undoubted advantage held throughout those three 



XX THE NEW CENTURY 441 

trying years, but rather In the sure knowledge that 
the people of French Canada had remained loyal at 
a crisis when their disaffection would have turned the 
scale and lost to England her remaining North 
American colonies. As De Salaberry wrote to the 
House of Assembly, in reference to the victory at 
Chateauguay : "In preventing the enemy from 
penetrating into the province, one common sentiment 
animated the whole of my three hundred brave com- 
panions, and in which I participated, that of doing 
our duty, serving our sovereign, and saving our 
country from the evil of an invasion. The satis- 
faction arising from our success was to us adequate 
recompense. . . ." 

Temptations to treason had been multiplied ; 
for besides many grievances at home, the French 
inhabitants were constantly exposed to the emissaries 
of the United States, who preached specious doctrines 
of liberty throughout the parishes of Quebec; and 
it was indeed fortunate that the unique influence of 
the Catholic clergy, powerfully led by Bishop Plessis, 
was actively exerted on the side of loyalty, just as 
at a later time they earned a sincere tribute from 
Lord Durham, and "a grateful recognition of 
their eminent services in resisting the arts of the 
disaffected." 

" I know of no parochial clergy in the world," 
wrote Lord Durham, " whose practice of all the 



442 OLD QUEBEC chap, xx 

Christian virtues, and zealous discharge of their 
clerical duties, is more universally admitted, and 
has been productive ot more beneficial consequences. 
. . . In the general absence of any permanent in- 
stitutions of civil government, the Catholic Church 
has presented almost the only semblance of stability 
and organisation, and furnished the only effectual 
support for civilisation and order." 

But the loyalty of the French population, which 
would not permit them to take advantage of the 
foreign difficulties of their rulers, was soon to be 
further tried and shaken through a prolonged period 
of political agitation. 



CHAPTER XXI 



THE MODERN PERIOD 



The history of Quebec in the period succeeding the 
war of 1 812 is a long record of internecine strife, 
due to certain conditions of the Canada Act of 1791, 
a measure halting midway between military rule and 
responsible government. The Act had been well 
intended, and it was, maybe, a necessary stage in 
constitutional development ; but its immediate result 
was to organise opposing factions into formal assem- 
blies, each bent on checking the policy of the other, 
and bringing the government of the country to a 
deadlock. On one side, the interests of the English 
were identified with the Legislative Council, a body 
appointed by the King for life, and owing no re- 
sponsibility to the suffrages of the people ; while, 
on the other, a French majority ruled in the popular 
assembly, whose authority, powerful in influence, 
impotent in administration, controlled neither the 
executive officers nor financial affairs. Accordingly, 
the dispute between the Assembly and the English 

443 



444 



OLD QUEBEC 



CHAP. 



ascendency, or " Family Compact," soon resolved itself 
into a struggle for and against responsible government. 
An insoluble problem was now presented to suc- 
cessive governors — Sherbrooke, Richmond, Dal- 
housie. Kempt, Aylmer, Gosford. All in turn 
addressed themselves to the work of pacification, 
and all retired baffled by that racial egotism which 
granted favours with airs of patronage, or met con- 




CITY HALL, QUEBEC 



tinued concessions with ever increased demands. The 
English were naturally apprehensive of a French 
dominance, which might prove dangerous to the 
security of constitutional union ; the French Cana- 
dians were too keenly alert for signs of tyranny, 
too suspicious of a power sullied by nepotism and 
greed of office. Of all the long series of viceroys, 
perplexed, discomfited, yet honourably bent on doing 
their duty to both races and to the constitution, one 



XXI 



THE MODERN PERIOD 



445 



of the wisest was Sir John Cope Sherbrooke, to 
whom Prevost resigned the reins of government in 
1815. He early saw the expediency of Hberal 
measures, and his wise administration led moderate 
men to believe that a peaceful era of constitu- 
tional progress was forward. Unhappily, however. 




LIEUT. -COLONEL JOHN BY, R.E. 

(Founder of Bytown, now Ottawa) 

these hopes were dashed by the succession of the 
Duke of Richmond two years later — a chivalrous 
but uncompromising advocate of the extreme views 
of his party in England. The Duke, however, almost 
atoned for the political narrowness of his administra- 
tion by the stimulus he brought to the social life 
of the capital and the sincerity of his belief that 
by personal influence he could harmonise contending 



446 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

factions. Under his magnificent patronage Chateau 
St. Louis became once more the scene of lavish 
hospitality. Dinners, dances, and theatricals were 
the order of the day ; and fashionable officers, issuing 
from their quarters in the citadel, found distractions 
in St. Louis Street and the Grande Allee, due com- 
pensation for all they had left at home. For the 
. exiled sportsman, too, there was the racecourse on 
the Plains of Abraham, riding to the hounds on the 
uplands of Lorette, snipe at Sillery Cove, and ducks 
on the St. Charles Flats. 

With pomp and circumstance the Duke of 
Richmond made progress through his dominions, 
everywhere speaking, entertaining, endeavouring to 
conciliate. He travelled up the St. Lawrence by 
steamer and thence by canoes along the shore of 
Lake Ontario to Toronto and Niagara. Next, he 
undertook the more arduous journey in the course 
of which he was to meet a tragic end. 

The little settlement of Richmond, named after 
the Governor himself, lay thirty miles from Perth, 
at some distance west from the Ottawa river. Here, 
following the trail through the woods, the Duke had 
penetrated in search of adventure. That night he 
and his small staff stayed at the village inn, and the 
next day they started in canoes on their way down 
to the junction with the Rideau river. Hardly had 
they commenced their journey, however, when the 



XXI THE MODERN PERIOD 447 

Duke's actions began to excite alarm. The attend- 
ants sought in vain to restrain his violence, and 
the boats drawing in to shore the party landed. 
Breaking loose from all control, the Duke plunged 
into the woods, and was found soon afterwards 
lying exhausted in a fit of hydrophobia, the result 
of a bite by a tame fox two months before 
at Sorel. He died the same night; and the body 
was presently carried back to Quebec, where for 
two days it lay in state at the Chateau. An im- 
pressive service was held in the English cathedral, 
and the body of one who had been Canada's most 
splendid governor since the days of De Tracy and 
Frontenac, was deposited in the cathedral vault. 
Minute guns boomed forth from the citadel, and 
Quebec was plunged from gaiety into mourning. 

The social brilliance of the Duke of Richmond's 
rule, however, could not blind the popular party to 
the inadequacy of the policy for which he stood ; and 
discontent soon began to take a bitter and dangerous 
form. The concessions grudgingly doled out by 
Dalhousie and Kempt, succeeding governors, did not 
touch the main issue of the question, and even when 
Lord Aylmer removed the last serious grievance, 
only withholding from the Assembly the right 
to vote upon the salaries of civil officers, it might 
have seemed that there was no further ground for 
agitation. But the essential grievance lay not so 



448 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

much in material disabilities as in the limitation of 
the abstract right to self-government ; and Joseph 
Papineau, the eloquent and ardent leader of the 
movement, summed up his party's political creed in 
the new watchword — La nation Canadienne. Parry 
and thrust, the fight grew faster, and the temper 




SIR PEREGRINE MAITLAND 



(Lieut. -Governor, Upper Canada, Aug. 1818 to Nov. 1828; also Administrator as 
Governor for Canada in 1820) 

of the combatants became heated. Papineau was 
elected to the speakership of the Assembly, a 
challenge the Governor answered by prorogation. 
Next, the Progressives demanded an elective council, 
and the Government replied that such a step would 
mean abandoning the province wholly to the French, 
who were yet unprepared to wield complete popular 



XXI 



THE MODERN PERIOD 



449 



power, and would moreover endanger the interests 
of the EngHsh minority. The demand was formally 
rejected by Lord John Russell on the return of Lord 
Gosford's commission in 1835. 

The fiery eloquence of Papineau now led the more 
ardent of his followers to the point of rebellion ; 
and for a time it seemed as if Lower Canada would 




TRAPPISTS AT MISTASSINI 



throw away the name for steadfast loyalty she had 
earned through so many years. The rebellion of 
1837, however, met with no serious support through- 
out the Province of Canada; and, except as an 
original centre of agitation, Quebec did not figure in 
it at all. At the same time defensive measures were 
not omitted, the leading citizens, both French and 
English, forming themselves into a regiment at the 



450 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

disposal of the Governor-General. Parliament House 
was set apart for a drill-hall and guard-house, and 
garrison duty was performed here during the whole 
of an anxious winter. Montreal, however, suffered 
violence at the hands of a misguided mob ; and in the 
country parishes the habitants were harangued after 
Mass on Sunday by deputies of the Fib de Liberie. 
Yet, while they punctuated these fervent addresses 
with shouts o{ '■^ Vive P apineau" and ''''Point de despo- 
tisme I " they neither knew nor cared what the struggle 
for responsible government really meant. In the 
parishes along the Richelieu, indeed, Papineau and his 
followers made a greater commotion ; but, except in 
Bellechasse and L'Islet, the contented habitants o^tho. 
St. Lawrence forgot the seditious procession almost 
as soon as it passed. These ingenuous enfants du 
sol had no political aspirations beyond the preser- 
vation of their religion, their language, and their 
ancient customs ; and, in spite of the bitter prophe- 
cies of peripatetic agitators, they refused to believe 
that their peace and comfort and quiet life were 
in any real danger from English oppression. The 
Government easily coped with this factitious rising^ 
which nowhere reached the importance of an organ- 
ised revolt. But while the military problem was 
soon solved, important political results followed hard 
upon such palpable tokens of discontent. English 
ministers now turned most serious attention to the 



XXI THE MODERN PERIOD 451 

constitutional defects of the colony, and decided to 
make a full and authoritative inquiry. Gosford's 
successor, Sir John Colborne, was now re-called ; and 




THE HON. LOUIS JOSEPH PAPINEAU 



on April 24th, 1838, the Earl of Durham sailed for 
Canada as High Commissioner, and he proved to 
be the keenest statesman, save Frontenac, who had 
figured in the history of the country. 



452 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

Lord Durham was at this time forty-six years of 
age, and into that comparatively short life he had 
already crowded a remarkable political record. At 
twenty-one he entered the House of Commons as 
member for the county of Durham, at once identify- 
ing himself with the party of parliamentary reform — 
indeed, he is even credited with the drafting of the 
first Reform Bill. An experience of five years in the 
cabinet with Grey and Palmerston, and of two years 
as ambassador at St. Petersburg, marked him out as 
a politician and diplomatist of the first rank. A 
certain stateliness and formality of character appears, 
however, to have made him many enemies in England, 
and they did not scruple to gratify their dislike or 
jealousy during his mission to Canada. Their enmity 
is echoed in a trivial paragraph in The Times^ describ- 
ing an incident which happened on the outward 
journey : — 

" A letter from Portsmouth states that on the evening of 
Lord Durham's arrival in Portsmouth, his lordship and family 
dined at one table and his staff at another, in the same room 
and at the same hour. We suppose we shall soon hear of 
Lord Durham's reviving the old custom of arranging his 
guests above and below the salt-cellar." ^ 

On the 27th of May, 1838, H.M.S. Hastings and 
a squadron of gunboats and frigates dropped anchor 
in the harbour of Quebec. Flags were flying gaily 

1 The Times, 3rd May, 1838. 




^/i£. Oar/ irf OiayfM . 



XXI THE MODERN PERIOD 453 

from tower and bastion to welcome the High Com- 
missioner, who was attended ashore by a retinue 
eclipsing in brilliance even that of the Duke of 
Richmond, and further guarded by two cavalry 
regiments, on their way to reinforce the regular 
forces in the country. As such a suite could not be 
accommodated in the old Chateau, Parliament House 
was fitted up as a residence ; and here Lord Durham 
established himself with a magnificence suitable to 
a monarch, but unusual in a viceroy of Ouebec. 
On his daily drives he was accompanied by three or 
four equerries in scarlet and gold, who galloped 
before his carriage to clear the road; and at his 
frequent entertainments guests received only the 
most stately hospitality. It is not unnatural that this 
large ceremony in a new and poor country impaired 
his influence, and at first increased the difliculties of 
his mission. 

The situation was indeed one requiring the 
wisdom of a ripe diplomatist. Previous to the re- 
bellion of 1837, government had become impossible 
owing to the antagonism of the racial elements 
existing together in the province; and on Lord 
Durham's arrival he found the constitution of the 
Colony suspended, supreme power being lodged 
in his own person as High Commissioner, whose 
slightest indiscretion might lose the vast territory to 
the Crown. That he was keenly alive to the 



454 OLD QUEBEC chap, xxi 

delicacy of his task is shown by the chivalrous, 
almost romantic generosity with which he met the 
natural prejudices of the French, and tolerated their 
utmost bitterness against his own compatriots ; and 
although this imaginative and liberal spirit met with 
disapproval from the ruling powers in England, and 
was finally the cause of his withdrawal, his concilia- 
tory policy was amply justified by the event. Indeed, 
it is certain that the insular assurance — by no means 
absent from subsequent public life in England — 
which prompted Lord Gosford, the previous Gov- 
ernor, to declare that the ulterior object of the 
French Canadian politicians was " the separation of 
this country from England, and the establishment 
of a republican form of government," and who met 
the imaginary demand with a sharp and scornful 
negative, would soon have brought Canada to the 
verge of a revolutionary war. 

The proclamation published immediately on Lord 
Durham's arrival in Canada gave promise of fair 
dealing to all parties. " I invite from you," he 
assures them, " the most free, unreserved communi- 
cations. I beg you to consider me as a friend and 
arbitrator, ready at all times to listen to your wishes, 
complaints, and grievances. If you, on your side, 
will abjure all party and sectarian animosities, and 
unite with me in the blessed work of peace and 
harmony, I feel assured that I can lay the founda- 




ENGLISH CATHEDRAL 



CH. XXI THE MODERN PERIOD 457 

tions of such a system of government as will protect 
the rights and interests of all classes, . . . 

" In one province the most deplorable events 
have rendered the suspension of its representative 
constitution, unhappily, a matter of necessity ; and 
the supreme power has devolved upon me. The 
great responsibility which is thereby imposed on me, 
and the arduous nature of the functions which I 
have to discharge, naturally make me most anxious 
to hasten the arrival of that period when the 
executive power shall again be surrounded by all 
the constitutional checks of free, liberal, and British 
institutions." ^ 

The problem to be solved is stated and partly 
solved in the famous report on the affairs of Canada 
subsequently published by the High Commissioner 
— perhaps the most remarkable document in British 
colonial history. It showed the keenest insight 
into knotted complications, and at the same time 
it made practical and far-seeing suggestions, which 
reduced the problem to its simplest terms, and 
prepared the way for a legislative union upon a 
sovereign scale, and with a provincial autonomy 
having the happiest results. 

" I expected," he declared, " to find a contest 
between a government and a people ; I found two 
nations warring in the bosom of a single state." 

"^ Si^uebec Gazette, 29th May, 1838. 



458 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

Nor could any lasting reform be accomplished unless 
the hostile divisions of Lower Canada were first 
reconciled. As far as the French population were 
concerned, he found an explanation of their an- 
tagonism, not so much in their unjust exclusion 
from political power, as in the grudging and churlish 
patronage with which privileges were one by one 
conceded ; while, on the other hand, the Loyalists 
were intolerant to a degree, regarding every favour 
shown to their rivals as a slight put upon themselves, 
and professing principles which were thus summed 
up by one of their leaders : " Lower Canada must be 
English at the expense, if necessary, of not being 
British y Elsewhere Lord Durham confesses the 
overbearing character of Anglo-Saxon manners, 
especially offensive to a proud and sensitive people, 
who showed their resentment, not by active reprisal, 
but by a strange and silent reserve. The same 
confession might still be made concerning a section 
of English-speaking Canadians, who seem to con- 
sider it a personal grievance that French Canadians 
should speak the French language. Lord Durham 
would probably have reminded them that conquest 
does not mean that birthright, language, and custom, 
spirit and racial pride, are spoils and confiscations of 
the conqueror. 

As for the grievances he came to remedy. Lord 
Durham dwells upon the circumstances which practi- 



XXI THE MODERN PERIOD 459 

cally excluded French Canadians from political power, 
leaving all positions ot trust and profit in the hands 
of the English minority ; for although they num- 
bered only one in four of the inhabitants, this 
privileged class claimed both political and social 
supremacy as though by inherent right. Owing 
no responsibility whatever to the legislature, they 
could afford to smile at the protestations of that 
superfluous body, and pursue their own wilful 
course. 

Coming to practical counsel, the High Com- 
missioner pointed out that there was no need for 
any change in the principles of government, or 
for any new constitutional theory to remedy the 
disordered state. The remedy already lay in the 
British constitution, whose principles, if consistently 
followed, would give a sound and efficient system 
of representative government. His first suggestion 
was the frank concession of a responsible executive. 
All the officers of state, with the single exception of 
the Governor and his secretary, should be made 
directly answerable to the representatives of the 
people; these officers, moreover, should be such 
as the people approved, and should therefore be 
appointed by the Assembly. He further advised 
that the Governor should be forbidden to employ 
the resources of the British Constitution in 
any quarrel between himself and the Legislature, 



460 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

resorting to imperial intervention only when imperial 
interests were at stake. 

His second recommendation was to bring the 
Upper and Lower Provinces together by a legis- 
lative union. He met the threatened danger of 
a disaffected people endowed with political power 
by an appeal to arithmetic: "If the population 
of Upper Canada is rightly estimated at 400,000, 
the English inhabitants of Lower Canada at 1 50,000, 
and the French at 450,000, the union of the two 
provinces would not only give a clear English 
majority, but one which would be increased every 
year by the influence of English emigration. . . . 
I certainly shall not like," he continues, " to subject 
the French Canadians to the rule of the identical 
English minority with which they have so long 
been contending ; but from a majority emanating 
from so much more extended a source, I do not 
think that they would have any oppression or 
injustice to fear." 

This plea for unity among all the elements of 
political life in Canada, premature as it was, marked, 
perhaps, the limitation of Lord Durham's scheme. 
But although he was mistaken in the degree of 
allowance to be made for the distinct individuality 
of the French province — a defect afterwards made 
good on Dominion Day — the work he did, the 
counsel he gave, made an epoch in the progress of 



XXI 



THE MODERN PERIOD 



461 



Canadian nationality, and prepared the ground for 
the completer measures of the future. 

The treatment of rebels was the most critical 
question with which Lord Durham had to deal, and 




THE MARQUIS OF LORNE (dUKE OF ARGYLl) 

it was ultimately the cause of his withdrawal, so timid 
and unchivalrous was the Government of the day 
in the face of political and journalistic criticism. 
While granting a general amnesty to the rank and 
file of the offenders, the High Commissioner offended 



462 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

constitutional pedants by deporting eight of the 
leading revolutionists without trial to Bermuda ; and 
although this measure was taken advisedly, with the 
purpose, as it turned out, of saving the prisoners 
from the heavier penalty they would certainly have 
received from a regular court, the Viceroy's numerous 
enemies did not scruple to use this technical omission 
as a basis for attacks upon his policy. Moreover, 
when he was bitterly denounced in the House of 
Lords by Brougham and Lyndhurst, the ministry of 
Melbourne offered but a feeble defence of their 
representative ; with the result that Durham, on 
hearing of this desertion by the Cabinet which had 
appointed him, sent in his resignation. 

The departure of the High Commissioner was 
deeply regretted by those who were able to appreciate 
the wisdom and sincerit;y of his administration, though 
indeed it was otherwise regarded by the leaders of 
that social clique in Quebec whose family compact 
he had resolutely condemned. Yet he had builded 
better than England or Canada or himself then knew, 
and his tireless energy and imagination left behind 
him the material for a sound structure. Besides the 
masterly report of his commission, a visible, if less 
important, monument to his beneficent work for 
Canada still stands in the magnificent terrace at 
Quebec, known to-day under an improved form and 
by another name, yet in a larger measure his con- 



XXI THE MODERN PERIOD 463 

ception and his achievement. He sailed from Quebec 
on the ist of November, 1838, the ceremony of 
his departure being hardly less imposing than that 
marking his arrival five months before. Troops 
lined the streets from the Governor's residence to 
the Queen's wharf, the bands playing " Auld Lang 
Syne" to express the regret felt at parting from a 
sincere and strong administrator, thus sacrificed to 
his enemies by a vacillating Ministry. At this last 
evidence of sympathy and appreciation the hauteur 
of the Viceroy relaxed, and, as he passed on 
board the frigate Inconstant homeward bound — as he 
himself records — his heart went out towards the 
people of Canada, by whom, at least, his motives 
were understood and honoured ; and this feeling of 
gratitude to perhaps the most simple and sincere of 
all British peoples remained with him to the end. 

By an act brought forward by Lord John Russell, 
the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada were 
formally united, and the first Parliament of the two 
Canadas was opened in the city of Kingston in June, 
1 841. This experiment partly meeting the needs 
of the country, and satisfying that high civic and 
national sense which make Britishers confident that 
they can govern themselves, opened up the way for 
that freer union which has since 1867 made a nation 
of a series of scattered territories. 

The legislative union of the Upper and Lower 



464 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

Provinces had not been concluded without sharp 
opposition ; for the citizens of Quebec foresaw that 
her influence must inevitably wane under the new 
conditions, and they set themselves strongly to defeat 
the measure. However, the ancient city lay too far 
east to remain the capital of the expanding territories, 
and with an almost exclusively French population it 
could not remain the political pivot of a British 
dependency. Opposition was overborne in due time, 
and the Act of Union shifted the national centre of 
gravity farther west. 

Canada was now embarked upon a course of 
self-government, and was never again to feel the 
hand or obey the voice of England in her internal 
politics. So much the union had accomplished. The 
problems of the succeeding period concerned Canada 
alone, and she was now free to seek a better way 
to her national organisation. A responsible legis- 
lature had been conceded, yet with defects in con- 
stitution bearing hardly upon the character and 
traditions of the French element. Thus, although 
the population of the Lower Province numbered 
two hundred thousand more than that of her 
partner, the two provinces were allowed an equal 
number of representatives in the new house ; the 
French language was cast aside ; and the united 
assembly was saddled with the heavy debts previously 
contracted by the western province. It was not long 



XXI 



THE MODERN PERIOD 



465 



before an agitation was started to readjust the 
relations between Upper and Lower Canada, and 
free the French from conditions which pressed heavily 
upon their material interests and racial sentiment. 
The new problem was, to find a way by which the 















jf7 7 HH 


1 


i ■ ""^ 


ws^^ 



SIR GEORGE CARTIER 



principle of self-government recently conceded to 
Canada as a whole might be reconciled with the free 
action and growth of its component provinces; and 
for twenty-five years this question engaged the poli- 
ticians of the country. 

Time, however, brought a decided change in the 



466 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

attitude of the two opposing sections of the legislature, 
as one by one the grievances of the French were 
removed. In 1848 the restrictions placed upon the 
use of their language in the Parliament were done 
away ; and by the surprising advance of the West, 
the hardship of disproportionate representation was 
taken over by Upper Canada. Twenty years after 
the Union, the Western Province had already a 
population greater by three hundred thousand than 
that of her rival. In the later period of the discussion, 
therefore, the position of parties was reversed, the 
French defending the existing order, the Upper Pro- 
vince calling out for reconstruction. But states- 
men on both sides now began to aim at larger and 
more patriotic ends than the exclusive advantage 
of their own province ; and in i860 a scheme for a 
federal government was proposed by George Brown, 
a Liberal statesman, intended to bring the interests 
of the provinces into line with those of the country 
at large. The movement was premature ; but 
four years later a convention met at Quebec to 
discuss the union of all the provinces of British 
North America, the chairman being Etienne Paschal 
Tache, who died before the work was consum- 
mated. There met the fathers of Confederation, 
John A. Macdonald, chief of them all — George 
Brown, George Etienne Cartier, Alexander Gait, 
Thomas D'Arcy M'Gee, William M'Dougall, Alex- 




u e-tfcmu^r- U evi^raAy o^ Ouia.^ /SJ^- /SyS . 



XXI 



THE MODERN PERIOD 



467 



ander Campbell, Hector Langevin, James Cockburn 
— together with Charles Tupper and other repre- 
sentatives of the Maritime Provinces. It was agreed 
that " the system of government best adapted under 
existing circumstances to protect the diversified in- 
terests of the several provinces, and secure harmony 
and permanency in the working of the Union, would 




SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD 



be a general government charged with matters of 
common interest to the whole country ; and local 
government for each of the Canadas, and for all the 
Provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince 
Edward Island, charged with the control of local 
matters in their respective sections." 

These proposals were well received in London, and 
in 1866 the Canadian Legislature met for the last 



468 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

time under the old conditions. The British North 
America Act became law in March of the following 
year, the Earl of Carnarvon being Colonial Secretary ; 
and on the ist of July the new Dominion, under 
command of John A. Macdonald, was launched by 
Governor-General Viscount Monk on that prosper- 
ous course which still conducts the premier colony 
of England into an ever brighter future. 

Valiant in asserting her predominance there was, 
however, a siege against which the fortress and 
bastions of Quebec were of no avail. Left behind 
in the march of progress, commercial and political, 
her prestige as a centre of national influence slowly 
declined, and Montreal and Toronto took over that 
pre-eminence which had been hers for centuries. Yet 
nothing could rob the city of her maternal grandeur. 
She saw no longer in the W^est the wild prospects 
and the fertile wastes, but a sturdy nation settling 
down to its destiny, and spreading out over half a 
continent ; so realising her ancient prophecy, so 
fulfilling her laborious hopes, the reward of zealous 
toil and martyrdom. Colbert's dream was now come 
true, save for the flag which floated over the happy 
homesteads in the peaceful land. These homesteads 
of the West, in the region of the great lakes, were 
indeed to be centres of growth and progress and vast 
wealth ; yet the venerable fortress on the tidal water 
ever was, and still remains, the noblest city of the 



XXI 



THE MODERN PERIOD 



469 



American continent. Tliere still works the antique 
spirit which cherishes culture and piety and domestic 
virtue as the crown of a nation's deeds and worth. 



■ 


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SIR WILFRID LAURIER 



There still the influence of a faithful priesthood, and 
a university in some respects more distinguished than 
any on the American continent, keep burning^ those 
fires of high tradition and a noble history which light 



470 OLD QUEBEC chap. 

the way to national grace of life, if not to a sensational 
prosperity. Apart from the hot winds of politics 
— civic, provincial, and national — which blow across 
the temperate plains of their daily existence, the 
people of the city and the province live as simply, 
and with as little greedy ambition as they did a 
hundred years ago. 

The rumble of the caleches and the jingling of 
the carrioles in the old streets are now pierced by the 
strident clang of the street-car ; and the electric light 
sharpens garishly the hard outlines of the stone 
mansions which sheltered Laval, Montcalm, and 
Murray ; but modern industry and municipal emula- 
tion sink away into the larger picture of fortress life, 
of religious zeal, of Gallic mode, of changeless 
natural beauty. No ruined castles now crown the 
heights, but the grim walls still tell of 

" Old, tar-ofF, unhappy things. 
And battles long ago." 

The temper of the people is true. Song and 
sentiment are much with them, and in the woods 
and in the streams — down by St. Roch and up by 
Ville Marie — chansons of two hundred years ago 
mark the strokes of labour as of the evening hour 
when the professional village story-teller cries " cric- 
crac " and begins his tale of the loup-garou^ or rouses 
the spirit of a pure patriotism by a crude epic of 
some valiant atavar ; when the parish fiddler brings 



XXI THE MODERN PERIOD 471 

them to their feet with shining eyes by the strains of 
O Carillon. They are not less respectful to the British 
flag, nor less faithful in allegiance because they love 
that language and that land of their memories which 
they know full well is not the Republican France 
of to-day when their Church suffers at the hands 
of the State. If ever the genius of the Dominion 
is to take a high place in the fane of Art, the 
soul and impulse of the best achievement will 
come from Old Quebec, which has produced a 
sculptor of merit, Hebert; a renowned singer, 
Albani ; a poet crowned by the French Academy, 
Louis Frechette ; and has given to the public life of 
the country a distinction, an intellectual power, and 
an illuminating statesmanship in the persons of 
Etienne Tache, Sir George Cartier, and Sir Wilfrid 
Laurier. Enlarged understanding between the two 
peoples of the country will produce a national 
life marked by courage, energy, integrity, and 
imagination. Though Quebec has ceased to be an 
administrative centre of the nation, the influence of 
the people of her province grows no less, but is 
woven more and more into the web of the general 
progress. The Empire will do well to set an en- 
during value on that New France so hardly won 
from a great people, and English Canada will reap 
rich reward for every compromise of racial pride 
made in the interests of peace, equality, and justice. 



APPENDIX I 

GOVERNORS OF CANADA 

Early Viceroys and Lieut enant-Generals. 

Sieur de Roberval, 1540. 

Marquis de la Roche, 1598. 

Charles de Bourbon, Comte de Soissons, 161 2 (Champlain 

Governor). 
Henri de Bourbon, Prince de Conde, 1612. 
Due de Montmorency, 161 9. 
Henri de Levis, Due de Vantadour, 1625. 

Governors under the Companv of One Hundred Associates. 

Samuel de Champlain, 1633. 

M. Bras-de-fer de Chastefort, 1635. 

M. de Montmagny, 1636. 

M. d'Ailleboust, 1648. 

M. Jean de Lauson, 165 i. 

M. Charles de Lauson, 1656. 

M. d'Ailleboust, 1657. 

Viscomte d'Argenson, 1658. 

Baron d'Avaugour, 1661. 

Governors-General under Royal Gov eminent. 

M. de Mezv, 1663. 
Seigneur de Courcelles, 1665. 

(Marquis de Tracy, Viceroy, 1665—67.) 
473 



474 OLD QUEBEC 

Count Frontenac, 1672. 

M. de la Barre, 1682. 

M. de Denonville, 1685. 

Count Frontenac, 1689. 

M. de Callieres, 1699. 

Marquis de Vaudreuil, I 703. 

Marquis de Beauharnois, 1726, 

Count de Galissoniere, 1747. 

Marquis de la Jonquiere, 1749. 

Marquis du Quesne, 1752. 

Marquis de Vaudreuil-Cavagnac, 1755. 

Governors of the Province of ^wbec. 
Gen. Sir Jeffrey Amherst, 1756. 
Gen. James Murray, 1763. 
Gen. Sir Guy Carleton, 1768 (Lieutenant-Governor from 

1766). 
Gen. Sir Frederick Haldimand, 1778. 

(Henry Hamilton and Col. Henry Hope Lieutenant- 
Governors, 1785—87.) 
Lord Dorchester (Sir Guy Carleton), Governor-General of 

British North America, 1787. 

Governot'S-General during the Fifty Tears when Canada luas 
divided. 

Lord Dorchester, i 79 1 . 

Gen. Robert Prescott, 1797— 1805 (Lieutenant-Governor, 

1796). 
Sir James Craig, 1807. 
Sir George Prevost, i 8 1 1 . 
Sir John Cope Sherbrooke, 1 8 1 6. 
Duke of Richmond, 1818. 

(Hon. James Monck and Gen. Sir Peregrine Maitland 
administrators, 1819-20.) 



APPENDIX I 475 

Earl of" Dalhousic, 1820. 
Sir James Kempt, 1828. 
Lord Aylmer, 1830. 
Lord Gosford, 1835. 
Sir John Colborne, 1838. 
Lord Durham, 1838. 

Hon. C. Poulett Thompson (afterwards Lord Sydenham), 
1839. 

Governors-General from the Union of the Canadas until Con- 
federation. 

Lord Sydenham (C. P. Thompson), 1841. 

Sir Charles Bagot, 1842. 

Lord Metcalfe, 1843. 

Earl Cathcart, 1846. 

Earl of Elgin, 1847. 

Sir Edmund Bond Head, 1854. 

Viscount Monk, 1861-67. 

Governors-General of the Dominion. 

Viscount Monk, 1867. 
Lord Lisgar (Sir John Young), 1868. 
Earl Dufferin, 1872. 
Marquis of Lome, 1878. 
Marquis of Lansdovvne, 1883. 
Earl of Derby (Lord Stanley of Preston), 1888. 
■Earl of Aberdeen, 1893. 
Earl of Minto, 1898. 



APPENDIX II 

LEADERS AND PREMIERS AFTER THE 
UNION OF 1 841 

Hon. Robert Baldwin and Louis H. Lafontaine, 1841. 

Sir Dominick Daly, 1843. 

Hon. W. H. Draper, 1844. 

Hon. H. Sherwood, 1847. 

Robert Baldwin and Hon. Louis H. Lafontaine, 1848. 

Sir Francis Hincks, and Hon. A. N. Morin, 1851. 

Sir Allan M'Nab and Sir E. P. Tache, 1855. 

Sir John A. Macdonald, 1856. 

Hon. George Brown, 1858. 

Sir George E. Cartier and Sir John A. Macdonald, 1858. 

Hon. John Sandfield Macdonald and Hon. Antoine A. 

Dorion, 1861. 
Sir E. P. Tache, 1864. 
Sir N. Belleau, 1865. 

Prime Ministers since Confederation^ 1867. 

Sir John A. Macdonald, 1867-73. 
Hon. Alexander Mackenzie, 1873-78. 
Rt. Hon. Sir John A. Macdonald, 1878-91. 
Sir J. J. C. Abbott, 1891-92. 
Rt. Hon. Sir J. S. D. Thompson, 1892-94. 
Sir Mackenzie Bowell, 1894-96. 
Sir Charles Tupper, Bart., 1896 f April — July). 
Rt. Hon. Sir Wilfrid Laurier, 1896. 
476 



APPENDIX III 

LISTE DES GOUVERNEMENTS DE LA PRO- 
VINCE DE QUEBEC DEPUIS L'ETABLISSE- 
MENT DE LA CONFEDERATION 1867 



Ministere Chauveau 






1867 


Ministere Ouimc: .... 






1873 


Ministere de Boucherville 






1874 


Ministere Joly .... 






1878 


Ministere Chapleau 






1879 


Ministere Mousseau 






1882 


Ministere Ross .... 






1884 


Ministere Taillon .... 






1887 


Ministere Mercier 






1887 


Ministere de Boucherville 






1891 


Ministere Taillon . . . . . 






1892 


Ministere Flynn . . . . . 






1896 


Ministere Marchand . . . . 






1897 


Ministere Parent . . . . . 






1900 



477 



INDEX 



Abercrombie, General, 248, 253, 256 
Abraham, Heights of, origin of name, 

396 
Acadians, expulsion of, 203 
Adet, M., 384 
Aiguillon, Duchesse d', 52 
Ailleboust, D', 238 
Aix-la-Chapelle, Treaty of, 191 
Albanel, Pere, 396 
Albemarle, Duke of, 145 
American Revolution, 342 sqq., 428 
Amherst, General, 253, 266, 273, 295, 

307> 313. 317. 324 
Andaraque, attack on, 93 
Andrews, Miss, 370 
Angelique des Meloises, 199, 227, 380 
Annapolis, so named, 178 
Anne of Austria, 166, 225 
Anse di( Fouloii, 292, 317 
Anson, Admiral, 191 
Anstruther's Regiment, 295, 317 
Anville, Due d', 190 
Argenson, D', Governor, 166 sqq. 
Arlington, Lord, 400 
Arnold, Benedict, 344 sqq. 
Arnoux, the surgeon, 300 
Austrian Succession, 187 
Autray, D", on the Mississippi, 128 
Avaugour, Baron d', 85, 167 
Aylmer, Lord, 301, 308, 444, 447 

Bafifin, the explorer, 394 
Bailey, Governor, 404 sqq. 
Beauharnois, Marquis de, 162 ;/., 184 
Beaujeu, Captain, 131, 215 
Beaumanoir, 199 
Beaver Company, 395 
Beaver Dams, Battle of, 434 
Belleisle, M. de, Minister of War, 265 



Bellona, statue of, 320 

Berryer, French Colonial Minister, 262 

Bienville, Celoron de, 192 

Bigot, Franfois, 195 sqq., 244, 261, 303, 

336, 337. 380 
Bizard, sent to Montreal, 119 
Black, the informer, 389 
Blasphemy, law against, 102 
Boerstler, Colonel, 434 
Bois brtiles, 419 
Bonne, M. de, 270 
Boscawen, Admiral, 212, 253 
Boucher, Pierre, 86 
Bougainville, General de, 196, 246, 250, 

262, 270, 279, 283, 302 sqq., -yyj, 310 

sqq. 
Bourdon, Jean, 395 
l^ourlamaque. General, 246, 266, 289 
Braddock, Major-General, 211 sqq.,^-i,(i 
Bradstreet, Colonel, 260 
Bragg's regiment, 295, 317 
Breakneck Stairs, 43 
Brebeuf, P6re, Jean de, 34, 41, 67 sqq., 

80 sqq. , 

Bressani, P^re, 81 
Bridgar, Governor, 406 
British North America Act, 468 
Brock, Major-General Sir Isaac, 426, 

431 sqq. 
Brougham, Lord, 462 
Brown, George, 466 
Brule, Etienne, 32 
Brunswicker Regiment, 366 
Burke, Edmund, 374 
Burton, Colonel, 295, 298, 317 
Buttes-a-Neveu, 105 

Cabot, the brothers, 3, 4 
Cadet, 196, 335, 336 



479 



48o 



OLD QUEBEC 



Caen, Emery de, 34, 39, 40 
Cahiague, the Huron capital, 32 
Calliferes, M. de, 163 sij,j., 175 
Cambrai, Peace of, 5 
Cameron, Duncan, 418 
Campbell, Alexander, 467 
Campbell, Donald, 342 
Campbell, Duncan, 257 
Campbell's Highlanders, 257 
Canada, Act of, 1791, 443 
Canada, population in 1700, 179 
Canada, Upper, 374, 427 
Carignan-Saliferes, regiment of, 89 S'j<f., 

92, 94, 96, 100, 161, 226, 380 
Carillon, 249, 255 sqq. 
Carion, Lieutenant, 119 
Carleton, Sir Guy. See Dorchester, 

Lord 
Carnarvon, Earl of, 468 
Carnival, 172 
Carroll, Charles, 364 
Cartier, George Etienne, 466 
Cartier, Jacques, life and voyages of, 5 

sqq. 
" Castle Dangerous," 161 
Cataraqui, or Fort Frontenac, now 

Kingston, Ont., 124, 373 
Censitaires, 94 
Chabanel, Pere, 82 
Chabot, Philippe de Brion-, 5, 12 
Champigny, Intendant, 142 
Champlain, Samuel de, life and discov- 
eries of, 19 si/q., 238 
Champlain's Chapel, 43 
" Chariot, the," 314 
Charles L, execution of, 104 
Charles H., 406 

Charles V., The Emperor, 5, 12 
Charlesburg-Royal, 14, 16 
Charlevoix describes Quebec, 106 
Chase, Samuel, 364 
Chastes, Sieur de, 20, 45 
Chateau Bigot, 199 
Ch&teauguay River, battle of, 436 
Chatham, William Pitt, Earl of, 252 

sqq. 
Chaumont, Pt're, 76 
Cheeseman, Captain, 356 
Chesapeake and Shaniio/i, 435 
Chien d'Or, 201 
Chrystler's Farm, battle of, 436 
Church, and the French Revolution, 

384 



Church, influence of, 45, 54, 66 sqq., 

85, 238 sqq. 
Church, the first in New France, 30 
Clarence, Prince William Henry, Duke 

of, 368 
Clergy, influence of, 441 
Clive, General Robert, 262 
" Clive of Quebec, the," no 
Cockburn, [ames, 467 
Colbert, Jean Baptiste, 86, 96, 117, 120, 

168, 169, 468 
Colborne, Sir John, 451 
Colombo, Francisco, 20 
Colonisation, French and English con- 
trasted, 39, 45, 46, 48, 100 
Columbus, Christopher, 3, 4 
Colville, Admiral, Lord, 313, 322 
Compagnie des cents Associes. See 

Hundred Associates, Company of 

One 
Compagnie du Nord, 405 
Conde, Prince de, 29 
Confederation, 466 sqq. 
Conseil Superieur, 239 
Constitutional Act, 375 sqq. 
Cook, Captain James, at Quebec, 271 
Copernicus, 3 

Corlaer, or Schenectady, 91, 144 
Cortes, Hernando, 5 
Coudouagny, Indian god, 10 
Couillards, family of, 38 
Courcelles, Daniel de Remy, Sieur de, 

88, no 
Coureurs de bois, 33, 102, 119, 143, 171, 

408, 417 
Coia-eurs de cote, 327 
Cradock, Richard, 407 
Craig, Sir James, 422 sqq. 
Criminal law, 102 
Crown Point, 212 

Daine, Mayor of Quebec, 304 
Dalhousie, Earl of, 444, 447 

Obelisk to Wolfe and Montcalm, 308 
Dalling, Major,- 317 
Daniel, P6re, 41, 49, 69 sqq., 79 sqq. 
Daulac, or Dollard, Adam, 60 
Davis, the explorer, 394 
Davison, Alexander, 368 
Davost, P6re, 41, 70 sqq. 
Dearborn, General, 431, 433 
Declaration of Rights (1689), 404 
Denis of Honffeur, 4 



INDEX 



481 



Denonville, 140 

Deschenaux, 196 

Des Ormeaux, Sieur. See Daulac 

Dieskau, 212 

Dinwiddie, Governor, 206 

Dolbeau, Father, 31 

DoUard. See Daulac 

Dominion, formation of the, 468 

Dongan, Governor of New York, 140 

Donnacona, Indian chief, 8, 10 

Dorchester, Lord (Sir Guy Carleton) 

288, 341, 343, 373, 38s, 428 
Drucour, Chevalier de, 253 
Duchambon, 190 

Duchesneau, Intendant, 134, 168, 405 
Dufferin Terrace, 308 
Du Lhut, discoveries of, 138, 410, 414 
Du MilliSre, General, 386 
Dunkirk of America, i.e. Louisbourg, 

255 
Du Peron, P6re, 76 
Dupuy, Paul, sentence on, 104 
Duquesne, Marquis, 206 
Durantal, Indian chief, 33 
Durham, Earl of, 423, 441, 451 sqq. 
Dussault, Marie Anne, 391 sqq. 
Duvert, Dr., 388 
Du Vivier, attacks Annapolis, 187 

Earthquake, in Quebec, 136 

" Echoin," Indian name for Brebeuf, 

70 
Edgar, Matilda, Ridout Letters, 431 
Emigration from France to Canada, 96 
Esquimaux, 32 
Estates General, 116 
Estournelle, Admiral D', 191 
Exploration, French and English, 411 

" Family Compact," 444, 462 
Federation, 466 sqq. 
Fenelon, Abbe Salignac de, 119 
Feudal system, imported into New 

France, 94 
" Fils de Liberte," 450 
Fire in Quebec, 135 
Fitzgibbon, Lieutenant, 434 
" Five Nations." See Indians, Iroquois 
Fontaine, Mile. Marguerite, 164 
Forbes, General, 260 
Fort Charles, 400 
Fort Crfevecoeur, 125 sqq. 
" Fort des Sauvages," 83 



Fort Duquesne, 185, 210, 260 

Fort Necessity, 211 

Fort William, 419 

Fort William Henry, 213, 217, 250 

Fort York, now Toronto, 434 

Forts built by the French, 185 

Fox, Charles James, 375 

Francis, of AngoulSme, 5 

Francis I., 45 

Franciscans, arrival at Quebec, 30 

Franklin, Benjamin, 338, 364 

Fraser, Captain Malcolm, 352 

Eraser, Colonel, 317 

Eraser's Highlanders, 295 

Frederick the Great, 246, 252, 262 

F'reemasons' Hall, 368 

French exploration, character of, 19 

French Revolution, 383 

Fripomie, La, 109, 201 

Frobisher, 394 

Frontenac, Count, no sqq., 134, 143 

sqq., 168 sqq., 175, 380, 404 
Froude, J. A., 3 
Fur trade, 395 sqq. 

Gage, General, 326 

Gallows Hill, 390 

Gait, Alexander, 466 

Gamache, Marquis de, 49 

Garneau, Dr., 389 

Gamier, P6re, 74, 82 

Gaspe, De, Les Anciens Caiiadiens, 234, 

332, 387 
Genet, French Ambassador to U.S., 

383 
Gensing root, 183 
George II., death of, 328 
George III., Court of, 380 
Ghent, Treaty of, 440 
Gillam, Captain, 400 
Glandelet, Sieur, 172 
Gosford, Lord, 444, 449, 454 
Goupil, a Jesuit, 78 
Governors of Canada, 473 
Grant, Cuthbert, 418 
Gray's Elegy, 292 
Grey, Earl, 452 
Groseilliers, Medard Chouart, called, 

396 sqq. 
Guimont, Louis, 224 

Habitants, described, 218 sqq. 
Habitation, built by Champlain, 24 



482 



OLD QUEBEC 



Halciimand, Governor, 366, 367 

HaUlimand House, 380 

Halifax, founding of, 203 

Hamilton, Treasurer, 383 

Hampton, General, 436, 439 

Hanoverian regiments, 366 

Hanseatic League, 2 

Harrison, President, U.S.A., 435 

Hart, John, sentence on, 391 

Haverhill, destruction of, 177 

Haviland, General, 324 

Hazen, Moses, 342 

Hazen's Rangers, 317 

Hearne, Samuel, 395, 417 

Hebert, family of, 38 

Hebert, Louis, 39, 47, 55 

Hennepin, P6re, 125 

Henrietta Maria, Queen, 39 

Henry, John Joseph, Sie^e of Quebec^ 

352 
Henry IV., of France, 20 
Hessian regiment, 366 
Highlanders, 256 sqq., 295, 297, 311, 

317.417 

Hill, Brigadier John, 181 

Hochelaga, the site of Montreal, dis- 
covery of, 10 

Holbourne, Admiral, 249 

Holmes, Admiral, 283, 284, 323 

Hospital General, 282 

Houses of Quebec in 1750, 235 sqq. 

Howe, General I^ord, 253, 256 

Hudson, the explorer, 394 

Hudson's Bay Company, 395 sqq. 

Huguenots excluded from France, 35 

Hull, General, 432 

Hundred Associates, Company of One, 
35, 48, 87, 395 

Iberville, Sieur d", 155, 408, 410 
Ignatius Loyola, .Saint, motto of, 74 
Ihonatiria, village of, 70, 77 
Indian fair at Quebec, 40 
Indians, 6, 8, 10, 39, 44 sqq., 175 sqq., 
211, 252, 412 

Abenakis, 140, 144 

Algonquins, 28, 39, 44 

Assiniboins, 138 

Foxes, 139 

Hurons, 28, 32, 44 sqq., 68 sqq., 80, 

139 
Iroquois, 21, 28, 32, 44, 91 sqq., 139, 
160, 175 



Indians— Mohawks, 77, 78, 212 

Montagnais, 28, 31 

Ojibwas, 139 

Oneidas, 171 

Onondagas, 171 

Ottawas, 139 

Pottawattamies, 139 

Senecas, 80, 139 

Sioux, 138 

Tobaccos, 82 
Intendant's Palace, 106, 349 
Inverawe Castle, 257 
Isabella of Castile, 3 
Italy, influence of, in the Middle Ages, 2 

James II., American estates, 140 

dethroned, 142 
James Stuart, the Chevalier, 176 
Jansenists and Jesuits, 167 
Jaquin, Nicholas, 201 
Jay, John, 384 
Jefferson, Thomas, 3rd President, 

U.S.A., 383 
Jervis, Captain, Wolfe's companion, 

290 
Jesuit Missions, 49 sqq., 121 
jfesuit Relations, 135, 395 
Jesuits, 34, 56 sqq., 118 
Jesuits and Jansenists, 167 
Jogues, Isaac, 77 
Johnson, Col. William, 212, 217 
Johnstone, Chevalier, 314 
Joliet, Pere Louis, 121 sqq. 
Joseph, in Egypt, 200 
JumonviUe, Captain, 210 

Kempt, Sir James, 444, 447 
Kennedy's regiment, 295, 317 
Kent, H.R.H. the Duke of, 376 
" King's Girls," 97 
Kirby, Mr., novel by, 227 
Kirke, Sir David, 36 
Kirke, Sir John, 399 
Kirke, Lewis, 38 
Kirke, Thomas, 38 

Knox, Captain, Journal of the Siege, 
236, 310, 322 

La Barre, Governor, 129, 135 sqq., 410 
La Chesnaye, Aubert de, 135 
La Chesnaye, massacre of, 161 
LacoUe Mill, battle of, 439 
La Corne, Captain, 332, 334 



INDEX 



483 



La Durantaye, M. de, 138 
La Friponne, 109, 201 
La Galissonifere, Marquis de, 192 
La Grange-Trianon, Anne de, iii 
La Hontan, opinion of the female emi- 
grants, 97 
La Jonquiere, Admiral, 191 
Lake of the Woods, discovery of, 186 
Lalement, P6re, 34, 75 sqq., 80 sqq., 

85 
Lambert's Travels quoted, 232 
La Monnerie, M. de, 164 
La Motte Cadillac, 172 
La Motte de Lussiere, 125 
" La nation Canadienne," 448 
Land tenure, 95 
Langevin, Hector, 467 
Language question, 327, 341, 458 
La Peltrie, Madame de, 50 sqq. 
La Pompadour, Mme. de, 195 
La Potherie describes Quebec, 106 
La Salle, Robert Cavelier, Sieur de, 

122, 134 
Lascelles' regiment, 295, 317 
Laval, Bishop Franfois-Xavier, 85 sqq., 

167 
Laval Seminary, students at the siege, 

27s 
La Verendrye, Sieur de, 185 sqq., 410, 

414 
Laws, Captain, 355 
Le Canadien, 424 
Legardeur de Saint-Pierre, 206 
Le Jeune, Pere, 39, 40, 49 sqq., 67 sqq. 
Le Masse, Enemond, 34 
Le Mercier, P6re, 76 
Le Moine, Sir James, 368 
Le Moyne, Charles, commands force 

of colonists, 92 
Le Moyne, family of, 155 n. 
Levis, Chevalier de, 196, 246, 250, 270, 

307, 310, 313 sqq., 331 
Ligneris, Commandant de, 260 
Liquor traffic, 86, 118 
Longfellow, H. W., Evangeline <\wQ\.e(i, 

203 
Loudon, General, 248, 249, 253 
Louis XIIL, no 
Louis XIV. and New France, 86 sqq., 

96 sqq., 120, 129, 168, 174 
Louis XV., 195 
Louisbourg, fortifications at, 183, 188, 

249 sqq., 253 



Louisbourg Grenadiers, 295, 298 
Louisiana, 128 

Loyalty, French, 426 sqq., 436, 441 
Lundy's Lane, battle of, 440 
Lymburner, Adam, 374 
Lyndhurst, Lord, 462 

M'Donald, Captain Donald, 313, 317 
Macdonald, Rt. Hon. Sir John A., 466 

sqq. 
M'Uougall, William, 467 
M'Gee, Thomas D'Arcy, 467 
M'Gillivray, William, 419 
M'Lane, 388 
Maclish, Governor, 416 
M'Pherson, Captain, 356 
M'Tavish, Simon, 418 
Madison, James, 4th President, U.S. A., 

383 
Madras exchanged for Louisbourg, 191 
Magdelaine de Vercheres, Recitde Mile., 

161 
Maison de la Montagne, 199 
" Afalbrouck s'en va-t-en guerre'' 233 
Maple sugar season, 236 
Mareuil, Sieur de, excommunicated, 

173 
Marguerite, Roberval's niece, 14 sqq. 
Maria Theresa, 187 
Marie de I'lncarnation, 52 
Market at Quebec, 226 
Marlborough, Duke of, 409 
Marquette, P6re, 121 
Martin, Abraham, 396 
Matagorda Bay, 131 
Mazarin, Cardinal, 86, 166 
Medicine men, 72 
Melbourne, Lord, 462 
Mercoeur, Due de, 20 
Mezy, M. de, 167 
Michillimackinac, mission at, 121 
Military dress, 431 
Minorca lost by England, 252 
Mission of the Martyrs, 78, 93 
Mississippi exploration, 122 sqq. 
Molifere's plays acted in Quebec, 172 
Monckton, General, 287, 310 
Monckton's brigade, 273, 281 
Monro, Captain, 250 
Montcalm, Marquis de, 196, 227, 246 

sqq., 249, 255 sqq., 260 sqq., 299 
Montgomery, General Richard, 342 

sqq. 



484 



OLD QUEBEC 



Montmagny, M. de, 48, 54, 58, 185,238 
Montmorency, Due de, 34 
Monipensier, Mile, de, 112 
Montreal, address by the citizens in 

1760, 328 
Montreal Gazette, 338 
Montresor, Lieutenant, 313 
Monts, Sieur de, 21 
Moranget, La Salle's nephew, 132 
Morrin College, 392 
Murphy, Patrick, executed, 390 
Murray, General, 240, 245, 276, 283 

sgq., 287, 29s, 310 sqg., 314, 323, 339 

Napoleon Bonaparte, Prince, 320 

Nelson, Lord, 368 sgq., 432 

Nesbit, Mrs., 370 

Newcastle, Duke of, 247, 248 

New England's claims in the West, 

206 
New England colonies, population, 179, 

248 
New Orleans, 363 
Nicholson, Colonel, 177 
Nicollet, an interpreter, 49 
Nika, in La Salle's company, 132 
Noblesse, Canadian, 100 sqq. 
Norembega, Lord of, 13 
Northmen in America, 4 
North-West Company, 418 
" Notre Dame de la Victoire," 157 
" Notre Dame des Victoires," 182 
Noue, Anne de, 39, 79 
Noyan, Commandant de, 260 

Ohio valley, war in, 206 

Old Lorette founded, 84 

" Old Regime," 218, 324, 336 

" Onontio," Indian name for Frontenac, 

143. 171 
Ontario in 1812, 427 
Osgoode, Chief-Justice, 387 
Oswego, capitulation of, 249 
Otway's regiment, 295, 317 

Palais de Jtistice, 106 

Palmerston, Lord, 452 

Papineau, Joseph, 448 sqq. 

Parkman, Francis, quoted, 14, 60, 126, 

214. 259. 314 
Parliament House, 375 
P6an, 335 
Penisseault, 335 



Pepperell, General Sir William, 189 

sqq. 
Perrot, Nicolas, Governor of Montreal, 

119, 120, 138 
Perry, Commodore, 435 
Philibert, or Nicholas Jaquin, 201 
Philip of Anjou, 176 
Phipps, Sir William, 145 
Pitt, William, the elder. See Chatham, 

Earl of 
Pitt, William, the younger, 374 
Planchon, Etienne, house of, 135 
Plattsburg, battle of, 440 
Plessis, Bishop, 441 
Political progress, 422 sqq., 443 sqq. 
Polo, Marco, i 
Pontbriand, Bishop, 283 
Pontgrave, 27 
Population of Canada in 1700, 179; 

in 1758, 248 
Population of Quebec in 1660, 85 ; in 

1750, 227 
Population, Upper and Lower Canada, 

460, 466 
Portneuf, Captain, 144 
Port Royal, capture of, 178 
Portuguese, discoveries by, 3 
Premiers of Canada, 476 
Prentice, Widow, 356 
Prescott, General, 385 sqq. 
Press-gangs, 425 
Prevost, Mayor of Quebec, 149 
Prevost, Sir George, 429 sqq., 440, 445 
Proctor, General, 434, 435 
" Provincials," 341 

Quebec Act of 1774, 341, 370 

Quebec Chronicle, 337 

Quebec Gazette, 337, 457 

Quebec Literary and Historical Society, 

392 
Queenston Heights, battle of, 432 
Queylus, Abbe de, 166 

Radisson, Pierre, 396 sqg. 

Ragueneau, P6re, 76, 81 

Ram6zay, Commandant de, 181, 270, 

300, 304 sgq. 
Rattier, Jean, sentence on, 393 
Rebels, treatment of, 461 
Recollets, arrival at Quebec, 30 

expelled, 41 

farm of the, 47 



INDEX 



485 



Rccollets, re-introduccd into America, 

168 
Rc^me milifaire, 325 
Rensselaer, General Van, 431 
Repcntigny, commander of colonial 

torce, 92 
Richelieu, Cardinal, 35, 48, 395 
Richmond, Duke of, 419, 444 .ujq. 
Ridout Letters, 431 
Robertson, Colin, 418 
Roberval, Sieur do, 12, 16, 45 
Robson, Joseph, 416 
Rupert, Prince, 400 
Rupert's Land, 404 
Russell, Earl, 449, 463 
Ryswick, Treaty of, 173, 175, 409 

Saget, La Salle's servant, 132 

Sainte-Anne de Beaupre, 224 sqq. 

Ste. Foye, battle of, 315 sqq. 

St. Germain-en-Laye, Treaty of, 39, 66 

Sainte-Helene, Captain, 155 

St. Lawrence, Gulf of, discovery of, 7 

Saint-Luc, La Corne de, 196, 332 

Ste. Marie, mission at, 77 

Saint-Ours, ^L de, loi, 196, 270, 295, 

302 
Saint-Simon, Due de, Memoirs, 112, 

227 
Saint-Vallier, Bishop, 170 
Salaberry, General de, 380, 433 sqq., 

435 s'lq-^ 439- 
Sault Ste. Marie, 121 
Saunders, Admiral, 266, 289, 293, 305, 

310 
Sawyer, Commodore, 379 
" Scholars' Battle," 275 
Scotch settlers, 417 sqq. 
Secord, Laura, 434 
Seigneur, position of the, 218 sqq. 
Selkirk, Lord, 419 
Selwyn, John, 406 
" Seminaire de Laval," 168 sqq. 
Sen^zergues, Brigadier, 270, 29^5, 302 
" Seven Years' War," 246 
Shannon and Chesapeake, 435 
Shawanoe, in La Salle's Company, 132 
Sheaffe, General, 434 
Sherbrooke, Sir John Cope, 444 sqq. 
Shirley, Governor, 188, 212 
Sillery, M. de, 49 
Simcoe, Colonel, 428 
Simpson, Miss Mary, 370 



Smith, I'rof. Gokhvin, no 

Social life, 218 sqq., 366 sqq. 

Soissons, Comte de, 29 

Southey, Robert, Life of Nelson, 370 

Spanish, discoveries by, 3 

Spanish succession, war of, 176 

Stadacon^, the site of Quebec, dis- 
covery of, 9 

Stamp Act, 339 

Sloney Creek, battle of, 434 

Subercase, Commandant at Port 
Royal, 178 

Tach6, Etienne Paschal, 466 

Talon, Intendant, Jean Baptiste, 88, 96, 

116, 118, 120, 168, 405 
Tecumseh, Indian chief, 432, 435 
Tessouat, Algonquin chief, 29 
Theatre in Quebec, 172 
Thompson, James, diary of, 343 
Thunder, Indian beliefs, 73 
Ticonderoga, or Carillon, 259 
Tiers Etat, 337 
Times, The, 452 
Tonty, Henri de, 125 
Townshend, Brigadier, afterwards 

Marquis of, 276, 287, 295, 302 sqq., 

310 
Tracy, Marquis de, 88, 172, 225, 376 
Trading, Indian, 412 sqq. 
Tupper, Sir Charles, 467 
Turenne, Vicomte de, Marechal de 

France, in 

Umfreville, Present State of Hudson's 

Bay, 412, 416 
Union, Act of, 460, 463 
United Empire loyalists, 365, 370, 427 
United States and Canada, 364 sqq,, 

424 sqq. 
Ursuline nun, quoted, 136, 238 
Utrecht, Treaty of, 182, 404, 409 

Varin, 335 

Vauban, engineer, 159, 183 
Vaudreuil, Mme. de, 227 
Vaudreuil, Marquis de, 179, 195, 212 
Vaudreuil, Pierre Franfois Rigaud, 

Marquis de, 247, 260 sqq., 302 sqq., 

313 sqq., 324, 335 
Vauquelin, Commander, 323 
Ventadour, Henri L^vis, Due de, 34 
Verch^res, M, de, i6i 



486 



OLD QUEBEC 



VerchSres, Mile. Magdelaine de, i6i 

Verch(>res, Seigneury de, i6i 

Vergor, Captain, 293 

Verrazzano, 3 sqq., 45. 

Vespucci, Amerigo, 2 

Vetch, Samuel, 177, 180 

Vignau, Nicolas de, story of a route 

to Cathay, 29 
Ville Marie, or Montreal, 60 
Villiers, Coulon de, 211 
Vincent, General, 434 
Voltigeurs, 433 sqq. 

Walker, Sir Hovenden, 178 sqq. 
Walley, Major, at Quebec, 154 
Walpole, Horace, 307 
Ward, the executioner, 388 



Warren, Commodore, 189 
Washington, George, 20(3 sqq., 213 sqq., 

340, 383 
Webb, General, 248, 250, 253 
Webb's regiment, 317 
Western exploration, 192 sqq. 
Wilkinson, General, 436 
William III., 142, ^disqq. 
Willson, Beckles, The Great Compapy, 

406 
Winthrop, Governor, 146 
Wolfe, General, 253, 254 sqq., 266, 302, 

307, 342 

Young, Colonel, 317 
Young, Sir William, 407 



